BetFred Howard Wright Doncaster Cup
“Sweet William goes back-to-back at Doncaster”
There was a moment at the start of the race where Sweet William appeared to have his own ideas about how his year’s Doncaster Cup was going to go. In his post-race interview with Sky Sports Racing, John Gosden said “We practiced at home getting him out the gate quicker and he does not appreciate it, I get the feeling he said if we practice anymore I won’t come out” and having missed the start and been the slowest horse to reach 30 mph in 8.4s, he wasn’t far from the truth. Rab Havlin had to stoke him up to gather stride, but to the horse’s credit, he responded well, running the fastest 4th and 5th furlongs in the contest to get into the right position by the time that the field went over Rose Hill.
Once getting over an awkward start to the race, Havlin had very few concerns and when we examine the data from the closing stages, it is very clear that there is only one top-class stayer in this field. Sweet William ran the fastest split for each of the final 5-furlongs, including a 12.39s split for the penultimate furlong which was 0.44s faster than anything else (approximately 3-lengths). HIs stride length, which recorded a race average of 24.18 ft, reached it’s peak in the 14th furlong (25.33 ft) as Rab Havlin asked him to begin to close on the leaders and he recorded a race best average in each furlong from that point. Although the top speed data ranks him 6th of the 9-runners (37.6 mph), the ability to lengthen into the latter stages of the race has more than made up for any lack of pace and in a race run with a finishing speed of 101%, the pace was honest enough to allow him to recover from a tardy start and ultimately run out a ready winner, eased down in the final 50-yards. A winning time of 3:52.24s made this the fastest winning time in this race since Desert Skyline in 2017 and was 8.55s faster than the TPD expected time for this race under “Good to Soft” conditions.
History has told us that Sweet William falls slightly short at Group 1 level and there is no suggestion from this data that he is likely to find the improvement to win at that level at this stage of his career. However, in the absence of Kyprios and Trawlerman, he has been able to stamp his class on lesser opposition and there was certainly no fluke about this 2nd success in the Doncaster Cup. He is now being put away for the winter and all being well he will return for another go at the Cup races in 2026.
I will also add a small note about the runner-up, Pendragon. Sir Mark Prescott made the decision to roll the dice with his unexposed 3-year-old, who also holds an entry in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket next month and will surely feel vindicated by that decision after finishing 2nd on his first attempt in Pattern company. He finished half-a-length behind Tarriance at Sandown, who competes in Saturdays St Leger for Andrew Balding, but he was the fastest horse in 3 of the last 4-furlongs of that race and having stepped up another 4-furlongs in distance, he does look to have improved again. It’s difficult to be sure given that the early pacemaker (Sunway) faded tamely in the home straight, but having raced closer to the pace than the winner, Pendragon has put in a performance that suggests he comfortably stays this far, ranking in the top 3 for 12 of the 18-furlong splits. At a peak average of 24.64 ft, he recorded the longest stride in the field and his top speed of 39.12 mph was considerably quicker than Sweet William. Luke Morris seemed keen to try to hold him together for as long as possible and whilst we have to accept that he was no match for Sweet William in the closing stages, his stride length shortened significantly once he hit the front and he may well improve again if he has other horses to take him further into the closing stages of a race like this. As a 3-year-old, he is open to far more improvement than most of this field and it will be interesting to see what the handicapper does when he is reassessed on Tuesday. There is no shame in a 3-length defeat behind a horse rated 18 lbs superior, even allowing for the weight-for-age allowance and were his connections to allow him to take his chance in the Cesarewitch next month, he would have to be of interest on the back of this performance.