(It could soon be four as last year’s winner, Hillstar, has already run third and fourth in Group 1s and is still in training).

This year’s London Gold Cup featured a moderate early pace. The free-running Satellite was allowed to go clear while running a time of 68.21 seconds to the five furlong pole (halfway).

From there the field sprinted for home in just 58.59 seconds. This compares with the 60.26 seconds they clocked for the final five furlongs in the Lockinge. When timed from the ridge in the track around 2.9 furlongs from the finish they got home in 34.06 seconds compared with 34.73 seconds in the Lockinge. Admittedly the final five furlongs of the Lockinge came off a much faster early pace. It’s possible they were racing on a slightly slower part of the course. But, whatever way you slice it, running the final five furlongs of a 10-furlong race 1.67 seconds faster than they went in a mile Group 1 race is pretty darned good. When I adjust my rating to reflect this it indicates a level of performance that rates as Group 3 class for a three-year-old this early in the year.

The winner Cannock Chase (33-pace adjusted 37) disputed second last place with the runner-up Windshear for most of the race. Cannock Chase’s jockey Ryan Moore opted to wait patiently for a gap to open. When it did Cannock Chase picked up well to lead a furlong out and kick clear of Windshear to score by a length and a quarter.

Cannock Chase is a good looking colt, more athletic than the runner-up but still good-bodied. He’s a full-brother to a decent two and a half mile hurdler and also to a 10-furlong group winner. To me he has the physique of an out and out 12-furlong sort.

Next up for Cannock Chase is the King Edward VII Stakes. This makes sense as since 2010 three horses that reached the first two in the London Gold Cup ran in that race and two of them won (the other went on to win an Australian Group 1).

Windshear (32-pace adjusted 36) did not look to be striding out quite as freely as the winner on the fast ground. He’s rather a big-bodied, heavy-topped sort whose two wins to date have come on soft ground.

Still, he showed here and when second at Newmarket that he can produce pattern class form on a fast surface. I wouldn’t be too quick to say he won’t handle fast ground if he renews rivalry with the winner in the King Edward VII Stakes. 

A stronger early pace at Ascot and the steep uphill finish might be enough for him to reverse the form as stamina looks to be his forte.

I still think the Queen’s Vase over two miles would be the best target for Windshear. Long term an obvious target is the St Leger.