The final feature races of 2019 were held this past weekend at Fairview, Turffontein and Kenilworth. The NHRA handicappers have published their final merit rating analysis report of the current year.
- Gr3 Lebelo Sprint
MR FLOOD has had his rating increased from 107 to 110 after he returned from over a year on the sidelines to win the Gr3 Lebelo Sprint (Handicap) over 1000m on the Turffontein standside track on Saturday.
The third placed dead-heaters ORAVAR and ROMI’S BOY were considered to be the most suitable line horses to use when assessing this race and as such, their ratings remain unchanged, while second placed WINTER STORM is up from 102 to 104.
Several other changes were made, with DOWN TO ZERO dropping from 110 to 108. NICKY NOO, whose rating was raised from 99 to 101 after the publication of the Lebelo Sprint weights and who accordingly was weighted off a 99 rating, was dropped back from 101 to 100. VALBONNE drops from 106 to 105, while RIVARINE (winner of this race as long ago as 2016) was dropped from 111 to 109.
- Listed Secretariat Stakes
LEOPOLD has seen his rating increased from 88 to 98 after he captured the rescheduled Secretariat Stakes (Handicap) for three-year-olds over 1400m on the Turffontein standside track on Saturday. The race had been scheduled for the previous Saturday, but was not run due to inclement weather and was an added-on event here. Third placed GREEN LASER and fourth finisher AL BORAK were both used as the line horses, which means their ratings remain as they were, while runner-up VASEEM goes up from 89 to 97.
The only other change was to last placed ALAMEERY who drops from 90 to 88.
- Listed Memorial Mile
SACRED ARROW remains unchanged on a rating of 110 after he led home a “trifecta” of Cape Town-trained visitors to win the Memorial Mile over 1600m on the Fairview Turf course on Friday. Fourth placed TOLTEC – the first of the locally-trained horses to finish, was used as the line horse, with fifth placed BOLD VIKING also running to his mark and effectively becoming a line horse as well.
Accordingly, both of their ratings remain unchanged. Interestingly, the winner in fact runs a whole 8 pounds below his rating in assessing the race this way.
Runner-up DUC D’ORANGE sees his rating increase from 92 to 101. Third placed EARTH HOUR whose rating had been dropped from 99 to 98 subsequent to the Memorial Mile weights being published, remains on the lower 98 level. Numerous horses were given a ratings drop.
ELUSIVE SILVA goes from 111 to 109, LETS PLAY BALL was trimmed from 93 to 92. KIMBERLEY STAR drops from 99 to 98, LAWS OF SUCCESSION is down from 96 to 94. THE HIGHWAY MAN drops from 89 to 87 and BEN-HUR is down to 85 from 86.
MJ Byleveld salutes on Elusive Trader in the Listed Southeaster Sprint (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
- Listed Southeaster Sprint
ELUSIVE TRADER has had his rating increased from 100 to 106 after he comfortably won the Southeaster Sprint (Handicap) over 1100m at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Third placed RUSSET AIR and fourth placed PLEASEDTOMEETYOU were both used as line horses, which means that both their ratings remain unaltered, but runner-up MUSHI STEREK goes up from 101 to 102.
Several horses had their ratings dropped. WHAT A WINNER is down from 100 to 99. READY STEADY GO was trimmed from 106 to 105, BWANA drops from 107 to 105, and BILLY SILVER was dropped from 103 to 101.
BILLY SILVER was badly impeded in the running, but he was given a two-pound drop as an overall re-assessment of his record rather than for this specific performance alone.
- Press release by NHRA on Monday 30 December 2019
