The NHRA Handicappers have had a busy runwith features every weekend and they burnt the midnight oil to get the past weekend’s assessments out.
- Gr3 Three Troikas Stakes
MOUNT LAUREL has had her rating upped from 94 to 112 after she defied joint top weight to record her fourth win from five lifetime starts in the Grade 3 Three Troikas Stakes for three-year-old fillies over 1400m at Turffontein (standside track) on Saturday. MOUNT LAUREL remains unbeaten against her own gender, her sole defeat to date having been incurred against male rivals.
Runner-up VICTORIA PAIGE and fourth placed SPIRITOFTHEGROOVE were used as the line horses here, which means that their ratings both remain unchanged, but third placed MAGIC SCHOOL goes up from 100 to 107. Fifth placed STAGE DANCE goes up from 91 to 104, while FROSTED STEEL was upped from 90 to 94. Two fillies were given a ratings drop, with GIN FIZZ being cut from 110 to 108 and MARYGOLD from 109 to 107.
- Gr3 Tony Ruffel Stakes
Ultra-promising IKIGAI was raised from 98 to 114 after he demolished his six rivals to win the Grade 3 Tony Ruffel Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein on Saturday.
The handicappers firmly believe that he deserves a prominent position amongst the best of his generation at this moment in time. It should be noted that IKIGAI has consistently run to marks well above his pre-race rating of 98 in his last several starts, but those performances were all achieved in graduation plates and as such, in terms of the local conditions, his rating could not be adjusted for any of those runs.
Third placed JOHN HANCOCK appealed as an obvious choice of line horse and accordingly his rating remains unchanged, but runner-up WESTLIFE (who was having his first start as a gelding) was raised from 81 to 103. Fifth finisher VALETORIA goes up from 86 to 92, while in the race’s only drop JOHNNY HERO goes from 99 to 97.
- Gr3 London News Stakes
JET START has had her rating raised from 105 to 107 after she ran out a narrow winner of the Grade 3 London News Stakes over 1800m at Turffontein on Saturday.
Runner-up GREEN HAZE was used as the line horse when assessing the race and so his rating remains unchanged. No horses aside from the winner received a ratings raise, but there were drops for DIVINE ODYSSEY (who goes from 116 to 115) and RETURN FLIGHT, who is down to 113 from 116.
- Listed Lady’s Bracelet
DANCING IN SEATTLE has had her rating increased from 96 to 102 after she made virtually all the running and held on tenaciously to post a narrow success in the Listed Lady’s Bracelet for fillies and mares over 1600m at Fairview (turf) on Friday 3rd January.
Runner-up MADAME SPEAKER and fourth placed DELIA’S DELIGHT remain unchanged after being used as joint line horses when assessing this race, while third placed MERYL also remains unaltered.
Two horses were given a ratings drop, with DUCHESS OF BOURBON down from 99 to 97 and STAR FIGHTER being trimmed from 106 to 105.
- Press release by NHRA on Monday 6 January 2019
