WE have a champion sprinter worthy of the title after the success of Almeraq in the sprint. This division has been lacking a champion, but with three Group 1 wins to his name this season, he is comfortably the best sprinter in Europe.

The key to Almeraq is getting him settled in the early part of his races. In the July Cup at Newmarket, he didn’t get any cover and pulled too hard before finishing ninth, but his three Group 1 wins have been achieved from patient rides where he has relaxed early on and that was the case here with Tom Marquand almost overdoing the waiting tactics.

Almeraq won in a time of 1m 12.20s, which is a faster than par time which he achieved by running evenly in a strongly-run contest, recording five sectionals that were close to par before being the only horse in the race to run a faster than par final furlong (12.13s).

His fourth furlong of the race was his fastest, where a 11.13s (par) sectional took him from eighth place to second and then, rather than quickening, he maintained his pace better than his rivals to be the fastest horse in the race through each of the final two furlongs.

As with most top-class horses, the ability to maintain speed - as opposed to be able to produce an instant burst - is the key to being an outstanding performer and Almeraq possesses that ability.

Value for more

Whilst he only won by an official neck, he was value for more, given the ground that he had to make up on Paborus, who put up a career-best effort and finished his race off relatively strongly - meaning that Almeraq had to catch him rather than Paborus coming back to him.

Entering the final furlong, Almeraq was 0.23s (one and a quarter lengths) behind, but he was able to hunt the runner-up down with that fast final furlong and win going away.

Whether you take the view that this was a well-judged ride by Tom Marquand or that Almeraq got him out of trouble, there is no doubting this horse’s ability - and arguably he is better on a softer surface.

Almeraq has little more to prove and his future will now be at stud. Had he remained in training, he would have been tough to beat next season; especially as he is lightly raced for a sprinter, having just had 10 starts.

AIDAN O’Brien enjoyed a superb weekend with six juvenile winners at Leopardstown on Saturday and then one on Sunday in the shape of Come What May, who is now unbeaten in two starts and looks as if he could be a Group 1 performer in the making.

Come What May put up a stunning performance to win the Listed Trigo Stages and this was a case of where the visual impression created was backed up by the data that was produced. He was green when winning on his debut, but knew a lot more this time, with his electric turn of foot propelling him six lengths clear of his nearest rival and he was hard to pull up after crossing the line.

The ground at Leopardstown on Sunday was described as good (yielding in places), but the RaceiQ meeting average Time Index came in at 3.5, suggesting that it was softer than that and a description of yielding would be nearer the mark.

Come What May raced close to the pace in second and that pace was steady, allowing him to save energy before quickening very sharply through the penultimate furlong, where he was the only horse to dip under 12.00s with a fast split of 11.96s.

Cadence angle

This turn of speed helped him record an FSP of 106.18%, with par being 101.51%. He backed that penultimate furlong up with a faster-than-par final furlong of 12.50s.

This turn of foot that he showed was even more impressive because it was instant and can be illustrated by how he managed to increase his cadence in the final part of the race. For most of the race, he relaxed into a stride pattern of 2.20 strides per second, but when asked to quicken was able to increase his cadence to 2.32 strides per second. This is a conclusive sign of a sharp turn of foot and suggests that he may not need a step up in trip.

He does not have a particularly long stride (average in this race 7.25 metres), but relies on being able to chop and change gear when necessary and, given the ground was not ideal for horses who like to accelerate his instant increase in speed, it marks him out as being an exciting talent.

His full-brother was the 2022 Derby winner Desert Crown, who also had a sharp turn of foot and was best on decent ground. Whilst Come What May has a long way to go to be as good as him, he has similar attributes and it would be no surprise if he too became a Group 1 winner in time.