Bacio
The World's Best Sprinter?
I will start by saying that I am only asking the question above. I would prefer not to have an inbox full of emails from fans of racing in Hong Kong and elsewhere telling me that I am wrong. Until Bacio and Ka Ying Rising meet on the track we probably won’t get an answer to that question, but after his performance in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, the former has to at least be a part of those conversations.
Prevagen Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint
I’ll begin with the bare facts. A winning time of 1:02.11 was nearly a second under the average figure for a course and distance stakes winner from the TPD database. It was also over a half a second faster than Libertango had been in the Juvenile Turf Sprint 24 hours earlier with Bacio carrying 5 lbs more. As might be expected, Bacio was the fastest horse into stride when the gates opened, reaching 30 mph in a blisteringly fast 3.8s as he reached the first pole in 6.05s. Having clocked a race best Top Speed figure of 44.83 mph, Bacio was in his customary position at the head of the field in the opening furlong, but that opening split was the only time in the race that he ran the fastest split in the field. He followed that opening split with furlong sectionals of 10.14 and 10.47s, so he certainly wasn’t stopping and with a peak average stride length of 24.58 ft, he had been able to stretch by the time they began to turn for home. The key with Bacio, as it always has been, is his high stride frequency. A race average figure of 2.56 strides per second was more than 5% above the average recorded for a stakes winner over the course and distance and that figure increased to a peak of 2.71 in that opening furlong.
Much like his earlier victories at Ascot and York, Bacio used his early speed to get plenty of his rivals out of their comfort zone. With so much early pace, a drop off in the closing stages is inevitable and so a late speed figure ranked only 8th at 37.56 mph needs to be taken with a considerable “pinch of salt”, especially over this extended 5 furlong trip. He didn’t have things entirely his own way, with Miss Yechance only 0.05s behind him as they passed the three-furlong pole. However, the three horses who attempted to go with him in the early stages (Miss Yechance, Shisospicy and Joe Shiesty) were beaten by the time they straightened for home and finished 9th or worse by the time they crossed the line. If we look at the course and distance figures for the races that Bacio has won in the UK and now the Breeders’ Cup this year, he ranks in the top 10 for his early speed across all of those tracks, even allowing for the softer ground in the Nunthorpe at York. His early speed is his biggest asset and as Friday’s race showed, even at the very highest level that turn-of-foot when the gates open is too much for his rivals to handle. An average speed figure of 39.85 mph was over one mile per hour faster than he recorded when winning the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes at Royal Ascot in June on Good to Firm ground.
We can’t say definitively that he is the best sprinter in the World. There are those in both Australia and Hong Kong who would have equally good claims to be so and unless their connections can all be persuaded to line up in the same race at some point, we are unlikely to ever find out. What we can say with some authority, is that Bacio is the one of the fastest horses that Total Performance Data has ever recorded data for. When the stalls open, there are very few horses that can match Bacio’s speed and even fewer that can stay with him. His Royal Ascot victory was clearly a “handicap blot” from a mark of 100, but he has now proven that was no fluke by adding a Nunthorpe Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint to his CV. To win any Breeders’ Cup race by a margin of 2 lengths is an exceptional achievement, but to do so with the early pace and swagger the Bacio showed is remarkable indeed. Wesley Ward’s post-race comments that he has the “fastest horse in the world” do not seem to be overly fanciful and if his trainer does indeed get his wish to go to Australia, we may get another clue in the bid to answer the question at the top of this article. Our data would suggest that over the minimum trip, it will take an unbelievable performance to beat Bacio in his current form.