IT takes something to impress the more seasoned and sceptical among horseracing’s timing enthusiasts. Over the years, they have seen almost the lot, and only occasionally does a huge visual performance come hand in hand with a huge time performance. That occurred on the Friday of this year’s Royal Ascot.

Indeed, the effort of Alpha Centauri in winning the Coronation Stakes by six lengths and more was so good that people have been questioning whether the time and distance were correct. As far as I can establish – by using Google Earth and video-editing software – they were. Not only did the Jessica Harrington-trained filly smash Barney Roy’s course-and-distance record by 1.33s, the second and third, Threading and Veracious, dipped under it too. The ground was just about the firmest of the week but no other times on the card were anything like as fast.

BEST TIMEFIGURE

In terms of timefigures, Alpha Centauri gets a 131 from me. Never mind its being the best at Royal Ascot in 2018, it is the best by any horse of any age so far this year and leads the three-year-old standings by fully 8lbs from Masar’s Derby-winning mark.

Timeform – who have been around even longer than I have, and who tend to be a bit more conservative with their time assessments – rated Alpha Centauri at 129 on this effort, a figure which has not been surpassed by a filly/mare since Cape Verdi ran a 131 in winning the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1998.

The older females Mecca’s Angel (2015 and 2016 Nunthorpe Stakes) and Miss Andretti (2007 King’s Stand Stakes) also returned 129 figures since.

Sectionals had shown that Alpha Centauri was if anything better than the result in the Irish 1000 Guineas last time but this was taking things to a whole different level. In this form it will take a very good horse indeed – male or female – to beat her.

The Coronation Stakes also resulted in timefigures of 115 and 110 for Threading and Veracious, who should each be able to win a group race on this showing. The British and French 1000 Guineas form was left in tatters further back.

Friday’s other Group 1, the Commonwealth Cup, proved to be far less spectacular, but Eqtidaar’s winning timefigure of 119 is still just about up to scratch for the race. Sectionals show that the leaders did plenty, and the likes of third-placed Emblazoned, ninth-placed Invincible Army and 12th-placed Equilateral deserve upgrading as a result. Runner-up Sands Of Mali (117) finished well but ran quite close to par in doing so.

A one-on-one comparison between the Duke of Edinburgh Handicap and the King Edward VII Stakes, both run at nearly 12 furlongs, greatly favours the former (run in an overall time more than 2.0s faster).

Dash Of Spice is a useful handicapper, going places, and that is backed up by a 109 timefigure on this occasion. But the King Edward VII winner Old Persian’s modest 93 timefigure was a product of a slowly-run race, in which Giuseppe Garibaldi and Delano Roosevelt were not seen to best advantage.

Agrotera had put in some very sharp late sectionals when winning at Windsor the time before but showed stamina as well as speed in coming from a long way back to win the Sandringham Handicap in good style with a 102 timefigure.

Main Edition looked to be about an average winner of the Albany Stakes in a time 1.46s slower than the year older Eqtidaar later recorded (carrying 3lb more), which prompted a 101 timefigure for the Mark Johnston-trained filly.