IT took a long time in the 2018 season for Cracksman to show his true worth, and a similarly long time in Saturday’s QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot for him to transform from apparently lazy so-and-so to something resembling a laser-guided missile. But when it came it was well worth the wait.

Other authorities may disagree, but I make this the timing performance of the season, not in terms of overall time – pretty good though that was – but in terms of sectionals.

Cracksman’s finishing surge looked awesome, and indeed it was. The section in which he took off, between three furlongs out and two furlongs out, was the only sub 12.0s furlong (around 11.9s) in the race and was followed by one of about 12.05s. In the space of little more than a furlong, Cracksman went from being level to being several lengths clear and about to be eased off.

No wonder that his rivals were crushed, though the proximity of the smart, if somewhat limited, Czech challenger Subway Dancer in third does suggest that the performance was not quite as stratospheric as an easy six-length defeat of Crystal Ocean might otherwise lead you to think.

I have Cracksman running a basic time of 126, but that gets elevated to 134 on those outstanding sectionals. Crystal Ocean comes out at 114 on sectionals, Subway Dancer on 113, and a slightly disappointing Capri on 109. Cracksman’s last-three-furlong finishing speed was in the region of 106%, whereas his rivals’ were quite close to par, which suggests that he should be rated value for nearer to 10 lengths on the day.

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The scalps Cracksman took on Saturday were not quite as impressive as the scalps he took 12 months earlier, but the performance was much the same. He is right out of the top drawer on his day – even if that involves blinkers and a fair amount of chivvying as here – and you had better believe it!

Some other context to the performance is useful. Despite the threat of heavy ground, good weather up to and including Champions Day ensured conditions were not extreme: on the border of soft and good to soft seems a fair call.

Then there is that overall time, which some have calculated as abnormally poor.

I don’t agree, but in any case it can be observed that, if your timefigure based on overall time is so out of kilter with what is suggested by your knowledge of the horses’ abilities allied to their sectionals, then perhaps it is worth revisiting the timefigure, standard time or going allowance, or all three. Especially on a course at which significant variations of going are being reported officially.

This year’s Champions Stakes sectionals were close to par early, and quite close to par for most of the beaten horses late on. The only thing that looks abnormal is that finishing surge of Cracksman!