In the table below you will find the Ratings for the meeting held at San Sebastian on 22nd July. To add some context to the form I will continue to include the conversion to French ratings with the Spanish form for now, although I must point out that this is only for the individual race concerned.
What did we learn last Friday? Well not a huge amount on the face of it. The potential star on show, Il Decamerone, ran no race at all in the opening Conditions race and looked like a horse who had been off the track for some time. He clearly has bigger targets ahead and will be better judged on his future form, but the winner of the race, Philau, had apparently been working well on the gallops and put up what looks to be a career best. The drop back to 2,200 meters was probably the key to that as all of his best form has come over an intermediate trip. He began his career in France with Philippe Sogorb, winning a maiden at Toulouse and reaching a peak French rating of 41 in 2021 before he moved to Spain. If he ever returns to run in France, it will be interesting to see how he is assessed as on the this performance, he has clearly regressed from that lofty mark despite taking a step in the right direction here.
The other race to note is the handicap won by Impressionant. To have the first 5 runners all run a faster time than the standard is quite a feat. I have checked the recent results and this is the fastest mile race run at San Sebastian this season. I have put a link below to the replay, which has very kindly been loaded by the Hipodromo de San Sebastian and as you can see this race is run at an end to end gallop but given the early speed shown, I think this could be a piece of form to follow, even if the winner was weighted to run the fastest time. Impressionant has quite an impressive pedigree, descending from the family of Flintshire and Bourbon Girl, so it is perhaps a surprise that his connections have not explored running him over a longer trip on a more regular basis. The 5th placed Helheim comes out on top of the ratings as he was conceding a lot of weight and did well to finish within a few lengths of the winner, but the key for this form going forwards will be the setup of any future races. The fast early pace towed the field along and set the race up for a good time figure, in a smaller field or in a different setup, especially if the runners head back to Madrid, they are not guaranteed to match this scenario.
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