Racing league week 6 review
Southwell
The Racing League 2025 has come to an end and I should start this column by congratulating Matt Chapman and the London and the South team, this year’s winners. They held off a spirited attempt from the East Team and Charlie Fellowes on the final night of action to win by 75 points. The East team produced a superb effort on Thursday, winning 3 of the 7 races on the night at Southwell, including a 1,2 on the £50,000 Race 41, but 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 7th time this season when making all to win race 41, holding off the late effort from his fellow East team runner Charmaine. He has certainly played his part for his team this year as he also led home a 1,2 for the Yellow colours in Race 21 at Chepstow, but this was a much more “gutsy” performance. He is now 30 lbs 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 30 mph 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 and then kick for home in the straight despite the fact that his mount recorded a top speed of 39.24 mph, which ranked 6th. The runner-up had the better top speed figure and the 3rd placed Kitty Furnival, whose points secured the title for the London and the South, had the best run-out speed figure (34.43 mph), but Crowd Quake was not to be denied and with the longest peak average stride length of the 14 runners at 25.23 ft, he was able to gallop on to win by a length and a half. The winning time of 2:20.66 was over 4-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 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 that he controlled this race, it is not impossible to think that he could 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 race 38 at 6:45. He also had to overcome an unfavourable draw from stall 12, but showed plenty of heart to get himself to the front in the straight, battling on to win by a neck from the fast finishing Havana Rum. This was a 3rd win of the season for David O’Meara’s charge who is closing in on a century of racecourse appearances, but despite a top speed that ranked 9th (40.53 mph) and an average stride length of 23.88 ft, 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 30 mph which forced Ethan Tindall to drop in behind runners from stall 14. He appeared to be coming with a winning run in the straight when he was short of racing room at the furlong pole, but he rallied well, recording the best run-out speed in the field at 36.46 mph (next best 36.15 mph). 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 gain compensation for this narrow defeat and it is interesting to note that Richard Fahey has entered him for the Ayr Gold Cup next month.
The final horse to note for the tracker is the winner of the opening race, Say What You See. Liam Bailey’s 3-year-old was unlucky to bump into the highly progressive Bragbor last week at Newcastle, but he made no mistake this week as he came 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 that we have seen in the Racing League this season, but 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 as runner-up on the other 2 occasions and his data from Southwell on Thursday would suggest that he is still improving. At 35.5 mph, he recorded the best run-out speed in the field and was the fastest horse over 4 of the final 5 furlongs as he recorded a time of 2:36.51, 1.47s faster than the TPD expected time for the grade. All of this 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 lbs rise for this success, but the placed horses have both hit the frame earlier this month and even though he was racing 4 lbs below his new mark, he should be capable of taking another rise in his stride.