By Adam Mills
Racing League Review
Week 6 - Southwell
The Racing League 2025 has come to an end, and I should start this column by congratulating Matt Chapman and his London and The South team - this year’s winners. They held off a spirited attempt from The East team, led by Charlie Fellowes, on the final night of action to win by 75 points. The East produced a superb effort on Thursday, winning three of the seven races on the night at Southwell, including a one-two in the £50,000 1m 3f handicap, but ultimately it wasn’t enough.
There’s no doubt that one of the stars of the Racing League and indeed the Flat season as a whole has been Crowd Quake for Stuart Williams. He won for the seventh time this season when making all to win the aforementioned 1m 3f handicap, holding off the late challenge from fellow East teammate Charmaine.
The four-year-old has certainly played his part for his team this year, as he also led home a one-two in the Yellow silks at Chepstow earlier this month, but this was a much more “gutsy” performance. He is now 30lb higher than when he began his winning sequence at Windsor in May, but as the data shows he may not have reached his ceiling just yet. Stall 12 can be very difficult to overcome but Crowd Quake showed excellent early speed to get into a prominent position, taking just 6.2s from the stalls to reach 30mph as he ran the fastest opening furlong to cross over and lead into the turn. Once in front, Marco Ghiani was able to control the pace before kicking for home in the straight, despite the fact his mount recorded a top speed of 39.24mph, which ranked just sixth.
The runner-up had the better top speed figure and the third-placed Kitty Furnival, whose points secured the title for the London and The South, had the best run-out speed figure (34.43mph), but Crowd Quake was not to be denied, and with the longest peak-average stride length of the 14 runners at 25.23ft, he was able to gallop on to win by a length and a half. The winning time of 2:20.66 was over four seconds faster than the TPD expected time for the grade, and having made almost every yard of the running we can only upgrade this performance further as a result.
Stuart Williams now has a 20% strike rate with his runners that are seeking a hat-trick. In fact, Crowd Quake has already completed one of those this season, but given the way he controlled this race, it is not impossible to think he could well win again, even with another rise from the handicapper.
The Racing League has its fair share of characters and none more so than the seemingly-evergreen Aberama Gold, who landed a 15th career success when defying top weight to win the 6f handicap. The eight-year-old also had to overcome an unfavourable draw in stall 12, but showed plenty of heart to get himself to the front in the straight before battling on to win by a neck from the fast finishing Havana Rum.
This was a third win of the season for David O’Meara’s charge, who is now closing in on a century of racecourse appearances, but despite a top speed that ranked just ninth (40.53mph) and an average stride length of 23.88ft, he was able to use all of his experience to hold on for Team Ireland.
Havana Rum can certainly be considered an unlucky loser. He was slowly away from the stalls, taking 6.8s to reach 30mph, which forced Ethan Tindall to drop in behind runners from stall 14. The five-year-old appeared to be coming with a winning run in the straight when he found himself short of racing room at the furlong pole, but he still rallied well to record the best run-out speed in the field at 36.46mph (next best 36.15mph). Having come into this race on the back of a recent success at Ripon, he looks to be in peak condition at present and should soon gain compensation for this narrow defeat, while it is also interesting to note that Richard Fahey has entered him for the Ayr Gold Cup next month.
The final horse to note for your ATR Tracker is the winner of the opening race in Say What You See. Liam Bailey's three-year-old was unlucky to bump into the highly-progressive Bragbor last week at Newcastle, but he made no mistake this week after coming with a sustained late run down the centre of the course under William Pyle.
The first point to note is that he pays a significant compliment to George Scott’s Newcastle winner, who would appear to be the most progressive horse we have seen in the Racing League this season, though Say What You See also appears to be on a rapid upward curve. Since stepping up in trip at the start of July, he has won twice and finished runner-up on the other two occasions, while his data from Southwell on Thursday would suggest he is still improving.
At 35.5mph, he recorded the best run-out speed in the field and was the fastest horse over four of the final five furlongs, recording a time of 2:36.51 - 1.47s faster than the TPD expected time for the grade. All this occurred despite having to race down the centre of the course in the straight, when the majority of the winners on the night came to the stands rail to make their challenge. He won by a head, so the handicapper can’t give him more than a few pounds for this success. The placed horses both hit the frame earlier this month, and even though he was racing 4lb below his new mark, he should be capable of taking another rise in his stride.
You can find sectional times, stride data, speed statistics and jumping performance metrics on the RESULTS page of attheraces.com.
The global database of sectional times, stride data and performance metrics is available through Total Performance Data.
