THE King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot was created in 1951 to test the best three-year-olds against the best older horses over a mile and a half in midsummer, an objective it has fulfilled more often than not.

The race’s roll of honour features many of the greatest horses in the history of the sport, including Ribot, Nijinsky, Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard, all of whom were among the super-elite to be rated in excess of 140 by Timeform at their peak.

This year’s contest, at Ascot last Saturday, probably did not contain a horse of quite that calibre, and the three-year-olds were scarcely represented. But it measured up pretty well in important other respects, and we know this not least because of the evidence of the clock.

In pulling clear of their rivals at the end of a well-run race on good to firm going, Poet’s Word and Crystal Ocean fought out the finish of the second-fastest King George in history, with the former prevailing by a neck. Only Novellist has won the race in quicker time, and that was on lightning-quick ground in 2013.

Record times and ostensibly fast times need to be viewed in context, of course. The context for this year’s King George includes the fact that the race was run in a time 4.22s quicker than the strongly-run concluding handicap, where around 3.0s might have been expected, and that it dwarfed all straight-course times on the card (though wind played its part in that).

As a result, I have a timefigure of 133 on Poet’s Word and Crystal Ocean, which are the best of the season so far, ahead of Alpha Centauri (131) and Blue Point (129), though it could certainly be argued with hindsight that Poet’s Word had run something similar when defeating Cracksman in a fast time at Royal Ascot also.

YAWNING GAP

Despite the conditions, which might have been expected to keep margins small, there was a yawning gap of nine lengths back to Coronet, who had been beaten by only a nose in a Group 1 the time before, with four other very smart performers well-beaten.

There was quite a bit of debate after the event about the rides on the first two, particularly as to whether William Buick had gone too soon on Crystal Ocean. Again, time analysis can help with that, and the answer is “no”.

We have lots of evidence over many years as to how to run efficiently at Ascot, especially at a mile and a half, and that is to run the final three furlongs of the race in around 99.6% of your average race speed.

By my reckoning, Crystal Ocean ran that closing sectional in 36.68s, or a speed 99.8% of his average race speed, which is very nearly perfect. What’s more, his last two furlongs of 24.78s (98.4%) and last furlong of 12.58s (97.0%) were remarkably close to par also. By contrast, Poet’s Word was slightly further back than ideal turning in – something acknowledged by his jockey James Doyle – but found all that was needed to get up late on. His sectionals come out at 36.04s (101.5%), 24.36s (100.1%) and 12.34s (98.8%).

The difference between those figures and par suggest Poet’s Word can be rated better than the result, if by only a little – his was still a pretty efficient performance – and so I will have him on 134.

This may seem like splitting hairs, though races are often won and lost by narrow margins based on split-second decisions.

The most important conclusions of all about this year’s King George include that the first two put up top-class performances backed up by the clock, that the right horse probably won, that the jockeys on the first two rode close to perfect efficiency, and that – purely subjectively – it was one of the most thrilling finishes to a race which has thrown up more than a few such spectacles.