Moore masterclasses: What the RaceiQ data told us at Epsom

If there's one take-out from the RaceiQ data at Epsom last weekend it's that we witnessed two Ryan Moore masterclasses in the saddle.

By comparing the race sectionals of the Oaks and the Coronation Cup, we can see Moore take full advantage of the lack of pace to tee the race up for himself in the latter contest aboard

Luxembourg

.

The first five furlongs of Luxembourg’s race were run in 1m 15min 16 sec, compared to the 1min 10.75 sec that

Ezeliya

clocked in the Oaks. The next five furlongs were entirely the opposite way around as Luxembourg stepped on the gas. He clocked 1min 2.41 sec, while comapraed to Ezeliya's 1min 6.74sec.

So what does this mean aside from Moore being an excellent judge of pace? 

In the Oaks we saw Ezeliya break the losing streak of her sire, Dubawi, in the Epsom Classics, proving that he can sire a 1m4f Classic winner. This was particularly significant considering how strongly the race was run, therefore how much of a test of stamina it became. 

What is interesting about the stride pattern of the two daughters of Dubawi who filled the first and second spot in the Oaks, is how well they stayed considering how fast their average stride frequency is.

From a small sample size of what we have seen, and based on others' opinions who have been studying this longer than us, it seems that Dubawi tends to produce fast striding horses. Is this the reason it has taken him so long to sire an Epsom Classic winner?

To back up how strongly Ezelyia galloped to the line, she was the only horse to record a sub 13 second furlong in the last furlong (12.78 seconds). 

With regard to the Coronation Cup, there is one horse I also want to note for the opposite reason.

Hamish is renowned for appreciating cut in the ground, and has stayed further than 1m4f in the past, so a sharp 1m4f around Epsom would hardly be ideal for him.

However, it didn’t stop him getting within a length of Luxembourg despite that colt having the run of the race. In fact, he had the highest Finishing Speed Percentage (FSP) of the whole meeting at 113.69%, reflecting how strongly he was finishing. The eight-year-old has clearly returned this season in as good a form as ever. 

As well as Moore proving why he is one of the best judges of pace, we saw another Aiden O’Brien masterclass to get back to his best. It was not dissimilar to what he did with Auguste Rodin 12 months earlier.

There is a lot of chat about City Of Troy's size, but regardless of how big (or small) he is, he has a consistently massive stride in comparison to the horses he runs against. That data suggests he wasn’t able to adapt his stride for the speed test that the Guineas became and, on reflection, we should have known this pointed to the step up in trip suiting him.  On this graph, you can clearly see how much longer City Of Troy's average stride length was. Los Angeles, his stable mate, was the only horse to have a larger average stride length. The average stride length for horses running in the Derby is a lot shorter compared to previous runs. This is because of the effect the undulations at Epsom have on the stride pattern of the horses: 

When we were digging through sectionals from previous runnings of the Derby, we found an interesting comparison between City Of Troy and Adayar’s wins in the race. We selected this comparison since Adayar is the other most recent winner on good to soft ground of the Derby. 

Both City Of Troy and Adayar ran the first half a mile in similar times (57.51 seconds and 57.42 seconds respectively) but they were sat in very different positions.

Where Adam Kirby had Adayar in a very handy position, Moore switched City Of Troy off at the back of the field, quite a way back from the pace. This starts to reflect how strong the pace was in this year’s Derby. To back that up further, City Of Troy then covered the next half mile 0.56 sec quicker than Adayar (52.59 secs vs 53.15 secs) which put him more than two and a half lengths in front of Adayar with half a mile to go. At this point City Of Troy was still towards the rear of the field compared to Adayar, who was sat handy at the same point. 

So what does this tell us? As well as the speed he showed last year, City Of Troy clearly has plenty of stamina to go with it. It also suggests two other points: Los Angeles can probably be marked up for his performance since he raced so close to the pace and still finished his race off to a degree, and Ambiente Friendly is going to be hard to switch off over this trip given he was again keen despite the pace being as strong as it was.