HAS anyone seen the summer? It has been remarkable how many of the major racing events in Ireland and Britain have been affected by unseasonal rain in recent months, including the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh in late-May, a far-from-Glorious Goodwood in August, and, most recently, the opening day of the Ebor Meeting at York on Wednesday.

Goodwood got nearly a month’s worth of rain in one half-day, while York got “only” a week’s worth in the same period, but it was still enough to turn the latter from good-to-firm to somewhere between good-to-soft and good. It did not spoil the party however as there were two top-notch winning performances on that opening day – from Cracksman in the Great Voltigeur and from Ulysses in the Juddmonte International. The latter produced the better timefigure between the two so we will concentrate on that first while the remainder of York will be covered in next week’s Time Will Tell column.

With a straight-course/round-course divide according to the TurfTrax going map, it is important to adjust for the proportion of a race that took place on one or the other, with the round course about 20lb slower by my reckoning.

Having done that, I got a timefigure of 127 for Ulysses, who seemed very well suited by being able to track a decent pace at this extended mile and a quarter. Even then, he managed to come home quicker than par, with a 36.2s final three furlongs, which translates into a 105.3% finishing speed.

Theoretically, Ulysses could have run a bit faster still had something been able to carry him into the race for longer. Let’s not forget, however, that Enable managed to beat him hands down at Ascot the time before.

If repeated by Timeform, that would be their fastest timefigure by an older horse in Ireland and Britain this year. Ulysses should be difficult to beat in any company, providing he can avoid Enable.

Churchill and Barney Roy ran perfectly well in recording 123 timefigures by my reckoning. It is legitimate to question whether or not they truly stayed 10.4 furlongs on good-to-soft going in a well-run race, but, at the least, they nearly did. It was a little surprising to see so much use made of Barney Roy given that sectionals have repeatedly shown that speed is his forte.

None of the others ran to their very best, though fourth-placed Cliffs Of Moher (113 timefigure here) possibly just needs his sights lowered slightly. His 119 figure from Epsom remains his best.

SUPPORTING CARD

The supporting races on the first day at York failed to turn up anything as special. Both straight-course handicaps were strongly-run but won by horses up with the pace.

Demons Rock did well in that regard to hold off Queen’s Sargent in the nursery with a time I make worth a figure of 97. The son of Requinto should hold his own in listed company, especially as he is most unlikely to have to contend with such a big field in that sphere.

Wells Farhh Go got up in the final stride to deny James Garfield in the Group 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes, but neither the overall time (which I make worth a timefigure of 94) nor the sectionals is up to the race’s usual standard.

Dee Ex Bee, who had been so promising in a fast-time victory on his debut at Goodwood, never went a yard this time and surely can’t have been right.

Just what a difference pace can make to an overall time, and vice versa, was neatly illustrated by the winning effort of Magic Circle in the extended two-mile handicap, a race in which the early pace was pedestrian in the extreme.

The well-backed five-year-old won readily but in an overall time worth a timefigure of just 44 by my reckoning. At the same time, he had enough energy in reserve to run the final three furlongs in 35.7s, which was faster in absolute terms than Ulysses, Cracksman and all the other winners on the card!