AS opening weekends of the flat season ‘proper’ go, the one just passed was busier and more memorable than most. The traditional curtain raisers at Doncaster and the Curragh were augmented by all-weather action at Chelmsford and Kempton, and by a superlative World Cup card in Dubai.

Time analysis was made more difficult by the effects of wind, of especially heavy going (at the Curragh) and by surfaces that have a fairly short history (Meydan and Chelmsford). Nonetheless, some meaningful conclusions can be drawn.

Timeform’s highest winning time rating over the two days at Doncaster came from Naadirr (timefigure of 118) in the Listed Cammidge Trophy, with rough-and-ready sectionals showing this was not one of the several races in which the main body of the field paid for going too quickly.

Naadirr travelled strongly in rear before producing a near 36secs last three furlongs for a decisive success which points to him making his mark in a still higher grade.

The leaders did overdo things in both the Lincoln Handicap and the consolation Spring Mile, and the winners, Gabrial (114 timefigure) and Chatez (113 timefigure), came from some way back. Listed races are realistic for the pair on this showing.

The most exhausting finish of all came in the opening-day finale, in which Walk Like A Giant slogged home in nearly 44secs for the closing sectional. Fifth-placed Hydrant and (in particular) third-placed Tamayuz Magic went too hard but did not capitulate entirely. Both can be expected to go much closer in handicaps next time.

JUVENILES

The opening weekend also saw the first steps by the juvenile cohort. Most of those steps were baby ones, but that was not the case for two of the winners in particular.

Chelmsford winner Buratino - one of a trio that provided a clean sweep for trainer Mark Johnston in British two-year-old races - ran fast (87 timefigure), and sectionals show he should run faster still. State Of Emergency (86 timefigure) was nearly as good in finishing well to take the opener at the Curragh for promising young trainer Michael O’Callaghan, an Irish National Stud alumnus.

Timefigures were disappointing for most of the older horse races at the Curragh, none more so than the Group 3 Park Express Stakes, which was run in a time around 3secs slower than for the Irish Lincolnshire and only a bit more quickly than the steadily run maiden taken by Ashraf.

Long-priced winners are sometimes prematurely written off as flukes but it is easy enough to knock 100/1-surprise Ramone in time terms. The standard form assessment of this race would be nudging 110, but Ramone’s time, and the accompanying slow finish, is more in keeping with a horse rated in the 70s, as she was as recently as last summer.

In general, the very heavy ground made this Curragh meeting less informative than might have been hoped.

DUBAI WORLD CUP

Opinions still seem to be split on the wider worth of the Dubai World Cup meeting, but this year’s extravaganza should have done much to bolster the event’s international reputation, even if the main event was a slight letdown.

Ireland got a look-in with the evergreen Sole Power, Britain with Brown Panther and the US with Secret Circle, but the show-stealer on the clock was the brilliant Solow, who gets a provisional 128 timefigure for smashing up Irish Champion Stakes winner The Grey Gatsby and others in the Dubai Turf.

That figure puts Solow right into the elite class, and to a large extent backs up trainer Freddie Head’s contention that the gelding is up there with the likes of the same owner’s Goldikova; it should take a superior performance to lower Solow’s colours in races like the Lockinge and the Queen Anne.

The importance of running races efficiently was underlined in the $10m Dubai World Cup itself, with Prince Bishop getting behind before mowing down more prominently ridden rivals, including the feted California Chrome.

We don’t have a lot of evidence of how to run fast times on the dirt at Meydan but what we do have points to the leaders going a bit too fast here. California Chrome’s last 800 metres speed compared to his average race speed was 97.3%, whereas Prince Bishop’s was 98.7%, and par seems to be around 100%.

The run of the race made a difference to the margins in the latest Dubai World Cup but not definitely to the order of finish. It should be remembered that Prince Bishop beat subsequent World Cup winner African Story here early in 2014 and carried a penalty to success in a Group 3 at Kempton later on. His win on Saturday wasn’t quite the travesty some portrayed it to be.

WITH Irish and British group races becoming more plentiful from this point, a further explanation of how Timeform’s ratings map to the standards usually required for success seems timely.

Time and form are both required to place performances into their proper contexts, especially now that time lapses are converted into margins in results. The form ratings quoted result from careful consideration of the result: of who beat who and by how much etc. They are influenced by time ratings but overall times may fall short of reflecting the protagonists’ full abilities for a number of reasons.

Among those reasons is the effect of pace: a horse will not run as fast as it can if asked to go significantly slower (or faster) than optimum at any stage in a race. That is why overall timefigures may be moderated by the sectionals which give rise to them.

Whatever Timeform rating is expressed, it is on a comparable universal pounds-based scale running from 0 to 140 or more on the flat (Frankel, on 147, is Timeform’s highest rated horse ever) and 175 or more over jumps.

Most horses ply their trade at a lesser level, of course, so the average Timeform ratings are given for winners of maidens, claimers and so on, as well as for the group races on which this column will generally focus.

One figure cannot describe all the possibilities involved – maidens at some courses will be much stronger than others, for instance – but it is hoped that the accompanying table will stand as a useful guide.