CONSTITUTION River’s much-talked-about Coral-Eclipse success was achieved with an impressive Race iQ time index of 8.1 - particularly impressive when compared to the otherwise strong card, producing an average winning time index of 6.3, writes Will Hayler.

Analysts’ eyes can often be drawn to focus on horses that made late ground in the day, with the view they should perform better next time if chasing a faster pace, but this year’s Eclipse offers us the chance to go against the grain and put forward an eye-catcher for the opposite reasons.

Gethin underperformed compared to expectations, but sectionals show he made his kick for home far too soon and ended up recording a finishing speed percentage of 91%.

A scorching early pace resulted in the entire field coming home much slower than the course and distance par finishing speed of 101.7%. Gethin attempted to keep up with that early gallop before he was understandably asked by his rider to slow down after a few furlongs.

The horse, however, had other ideas and continued to race too keenly before hitting the front too early in the home straight to be able to sustain his effort to the winning post.

The talk now is that - thanks to the high-class performance of the winner - the middle-distance three-year-olds must be a smart crop, but Gethin is worth another chance to show his true colours against the youngsters later this season.

As a final point, the prominently-ridden and incredibly gutsy Hawk Mountain is fancied to reverse form with A Boy Named Susie should those two meet again.

Away from Sandown and down to a lowly 0-60 at Naas the same afternoon, take note of Rodeo Blues who recorded a smart effort in success, achieving a time index score of 9.2.

The RaceiQ data points to third-home Point Cartwright being the most eye-catching of the beaten horses. He recorded an uncharacteristically slow break speed of 2.93 seconds, the second-slowest of the 16-runner field, but the highest finishing speed of 104.3%. He’ll be breaking his duck soon.