The Verdict Extra: Angus McNae has a bonus pair to follow

The Verdict on Tuesday, which you can watch by clicking above, focused on the Guineas Festival at Newmarket where the winners of the two Classics came from last to first to stand the pace bias at the Rowley Mile on its head. 

Both were good winners of deep races with Notable Speech putting up the best performance of the season by some way. 

He is a horse with an electric turn of foot, as he showed when previously winning three times at Kempton. Here, he added a further string to his bow proving that he can operate in a strongly run race. 

Utilising the Race IQ data I have found two races of extra interest that didn’t feature in the show. 

In winning the William Hill Newmarket Stakes, Caviar Heights made the most of the front-running bias at the Rowley Mile, but this win should not just be put down to his ability to dominate this field from the front. 

For a start, his final time of 2min 2.88sec was very fast - the best on the card and close to the magic 2 minute mark for a ten-furlong race. 

RaceiQ are now able to allot a score (between 0-10) to a race based on the final time achieved and comparing it historically to races of the same class run at the same distance at the same track. 

A race that has performed as expected would receive a score of between 5 and 6, but this race overperformed in achieving a score of 7.54. 

Below is the time Index graph for Friday on the Rowley Mile. This was the highest time index score achieved over the three days of the Guineas Festival. 

This score was achieved by him setting strong and even fractions. His FSP of 97.13% tells us that he slowed down by 2.87% in the final three furlongs having galloped his rivals into submission. He did the damage early in the race, reeling off the following sectionals: Furlong 4: 11.57sec; F5: 11.71sec;  F6: 11.84sec; F7: 11.86sec. 

The final three furlongs were slower but by this stage he had every horse in trouble.  His sectionals read: Furlong 8: 12.11sec; F9: 12.37sec; F10: 13.48sec. 

The contrast between these two segments of the race is obvious but no horse could take advantage. Despite slowing down, Caviar Heights was still 0.64sec faster in the final three furlongs than the runner–up. 

This was a relentless display of galloping, albeit helped by the nature of this track. He is speedily bred on the dam’s side of his pedigree and is not guaranteed to stay the Derby trip so surely the Prix Du Jockey Club will be his target. He may well go under the radar. 

On only his second start, Grey Charger shaped well in defeat behind Devils Point at Goodwood. 

The winner made all and his RaceiQ Finishing Speed Percentage (FSP) of 114.82% tells us that the race was one where the winner conserved energy in the early part of the race enabling a final two furlongs that was 14.82% quicker than the previous six furlongs. 

He was able to dictate the steady pace enjoying a positional advantage over Grey Charger, yet the runner-up shaped with a good deal of promise. 

Grey Charger completed the final two furlongs in 23.59sec - faster than the winner who clocked 23.75sec. This was reflected in a higher FSP than the winner of 115.71%. 

He was particularly impressive in the penultimate furlong where he recorded the fastest split in the race of 11.39sec or 39.48mph (Devils Point managed 11.60sec or 39.28mph). 

The reason he failed to win is rooted in the fact that when the sprint began Devils Point was a couple of lengths ahead of Grey Charger, who looked green and inexperienced. 

Horses that are sprinting ahead of others while recording a fast-finishing split are hard to catch but Grey Charger did all he could in defeat and will be winning soon.