If you looked at the official going report for Kempton on Monday, you’d have seen it listed as “Standard To Slow”. But if you sat down with a stopwatch and analysed the actual race times, you’d tell a very different story.
It’s a classic case of why we can’t just rely on the race card. Yesterday’s meeting threw up some massive disparities. Some races were absolute crawls that turned into sprints for the line, while others were run at a proper, honest gallop.
Here’s what the clock told us about yesterday’s action.
The Tale of Two 1m 3f Races
The most glaring stat of the day came from the two races run over the 1m 3f trip. Both were Class 3 contests, so on paper, you’d expect similar times. In reality, they were chalk and cheese.
14:08 Winner: Helga (2m 22.75s)
14:38 Winner: Caliban (2m 18.74s)
That is not a typo. Caliban ran the distance just over 4 seconds faster than Helga.
In betting terms, 4 seconds is an eternity—roughly 20 to 24 lengths. While Helga’s race was a tactical, “muddy” affair where they hacked round and sprinted at the end, Caliban went clear early and kept up a relentless gallop.
The Verdict: Be careful with the form from Helga’s race; a falsely run race often flatters horses. Caliban, however, looks like a serious machine. To clock that time on a Monday in January suggests he’s destined for much better things.
The Sprint Division
We saw a similar story over the 6-furlong trip.
In the 15:38, Your Love clocked a respectable 71.58s. Compare that to the 15:08 won by Up The Agenda, who stopped the clock at 74.51s.
That’s a nearly three-second difference. Up The Agenda won a race that was run at a pedestrian pace, which suited his late turn of foot. However, Your Love posted a genuine speed figure that suggests the track was actually riding much faster than “Slow” implies.
Ones for the Notebook
Caliban: The standout performance of the day. A proper staying performance against the clock.
Token Gesture (13:08): Won the mile handicap in a time almost a second faster than the standard. It was an honest race, and the form should hold up.
Im Workin On It (16:08): Another solid time over 7f. The top three in this race pulled nicely clear, and the clock backs up the visual impression.
Final thought: Don’t let the “Standard To Slow” label put you off backing these winners next time out. The surface was riding perfectly fair—you just needed a horse brave enough to go a proper gallop.