‘THE going’ – some people place a lot of store by it, some people do not. Even those in the latter camp are likely to concede that the official description of the going should reflect the reality of the situation.

The prevalence of going preferences may be overstated but the speed of a racing surface will still affect the amount of speed or stamina a horse is required to show and that is important in the wider scheme of things.

There are a number of ways to determine the going, including through use of the going stick and by the much-tried (but not much-tested) method of walking the course. Neither uses evidence at the moments at which races are run, but time analysis, through which the state of the going can be inferred, does.

Time analysis calls into question the official version of the going for flat racing at Sandown last Friday week, with both sectionals and overall times pointing to the surface being “good to soft”, not a mixture of “good to firm” and “good”.

This might seem no big deal, but not only did the official version of the going determine the lengths-per-second used by the racecourse judge, thus artificially inflating returned margins between horses, it will also remain on the official record hereafter. Anyone analysing the day’s performances, whether in terms of form or in terms of time, needs to allow for that.

As it is, we saw some exciting action and a possible future star in the shape of Jack Hobbs, runaway winner of the concluding 10-furlong handicap. Jack Hobbs’ time was just 0.36secs slower than his stablemate Western Hymn’s in winning the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes earlier on the card. After maturity is factored in, that makes Jack Hobbs’ performance a 7lb better one in relative terms.

QUICKEST

Sectional times – such as they could be established manually – also have the younger horse faster for the last four, two and one furlongs. Jack Hobbs’ final-furlong time of 13.2secs was clearly quickest by any horse on the round course on the day and he managed it despite being eased.

Whether or not Jack Hobbs is a genuine Derby candidate remains to be seen (the bookmakers’ reaction seemed to overstate his claims somewhat), but that he will be competitive in group races, and probably good enough to win at least one of them, seems a given. His overall timefigure of 105 may not suggest so but his sectional upgrade to 112 does.

CHRISTOPHERMARLOWE

Similar remarks apply to another of trainer John Gosden’s classic crop, Christophermarlowe, who had run quite fast in winning the Derby Trial at Epsom earlier in the week. The colt’s 38.6secs from the path nearly three and a half furlongs from home translates to a finishing speed compared to his average race speed of 113.5%, which reflects in part the unique nature of the Epsom course but also implies that better is likely to come. Christophermarlowe gets a 112 sectional rating also.

The unexpectedly testing conditions on the flat course at Sandown that Friday came about as a result of efforts to ensure “safe” ground for last Saturday’s jump season finale at the course. The hurdles course was more testing than the chase course but two of the chases featured overly-strong paces which made them more of a test of stamina than might be imagined also.

Special Tiara’s win in the A P McCoy Celebration Chase had an end-of-term feel to it, but the time he recorded, despite a slow finish, suggests he stepped up a bit on his third to Dodging Bullets at Cheltenham. A provisional time figure of 167 has the Henry de Bromhead-trained gelding behind only a handful of horses in the entirety of the 2014/15 jumps season.

STRONG PACE

A strong pace set things up for Just A Par in the bet365 Gold Cup, with the eight-year-old coming from ninth at the Pond Fence to first at the line. The race sectional from that juncture was 43.7secs, or a finishing speed of just 92.9% of the overall race speed, and the more prominently-ridden third to fifth finishers deserve some extra credit.

That conditions were testing at Naas on Monday was flagged up beforehand and borne out by the times. One of those times stands out: Great Minds’ 62.19secs in winning the five-furlong listed Woodlands Stakes compares very well with all others on a card on which five of the seven races were sprints.

Great Minds’ resulting time figure of 118 puts him in joint-third place, behind the Greenham Stakes one-two Muhaarar and Estidhkaar, in the season so far. He may require the mud (raced only on softer than good to date) but he is clearly a group-class sprinter when that is so.

Connections must be hoping that the predilection for extensive watering that was behind the Sandown situation catches on even more widely.