October
SeptemberGroup 2s and Group 2s
James Cummings was quoted recently as saying that the benchmark 88 field at Rosehill on Saturday August 31 was like a Group 2 in disguise.
James is a very busy man and might not have been aware of Japan’s 2000-metre Group 2 Sapporo Kinen, run 13 days earlier.
Cox Plate invitee Kluger contested this race as the equal second-highest rated horse. That inflated rating was the result of a second placing behind Winx but must have ignored the facts that at the time of his arrival in Australia as a seven year-old, Kluger had contested only one Group 1 race (unsuccessfully), had not won a race for almost three years, and on his 2018 turf rating was listed as equal 101st on the published JRA lists.
That rating was down from the mid 50s in 2017, when he was not affected by fitness issues that apparently arose in 2018.
So when making his comments James Cummings must have been thinking about the standard of some of our local Group 2s, rather than those of true international quality.
There were five genuine Group 1 quality horses in the Sapporo Kinen. Not unexpectedly, they were the first five in the betting and the first five home.
Seventh placing went to Crocosmia, a mare who ran second in each of Japan’s past two Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cups, the latter won by Les Gracieux.
Not a bad field for a mere Group 2 and it was not surprising to anyone, except perhaps the committee of the Moonee Valley Racing Club, that Kluger only managed to finish eighth.
The local punters obviously saw through the overgenerous rating assessment of 117, based on Australian benchmarks, because he started at odds equivalent to $44.50.
Racing Victoria has stated that he will be a Cox Plate starter but it is astounding that have some of our betting agencies have him listed him for the Cox Plate at half the odds that he started at in a Group 2 at his latest start.
For the record, the five horses referred to above were the winner, Blast Onepiece, Fierement Wagnerian, Persian Knight and Sungrazer.
Even allowing for the conservative ratings regime of the Japanese (they have 50 fewer Group 1s than Australia, with none of the Clayton’s variety), the above is just another illustration, if any more were needed, of how far out of step Australian racing can be with its subjective ratings, Winx possibly being the notable exception.
Glen Iris (Vic)