How good is National Park?

Chimi is a banker next time it steps out, take nothing away from NP, won a very good race but how good he really is will be seen in his next run, hopefully on Summer Cup day.

Imo .... pretty much impossible to base statements of 'how good' on one race .... on Saturday on my ratings, NP achieved 118, CR 107, IC, 95, A 94, Firdoas 86 - and that's using Victor Forth (86) and Benji (85); as the 'line'; time will tell how accurate these ratings are, but at first glance it would seem that all of CR, A and Firdoas (for whatever reason) ran below their 'ability'

For the Charity Mile (where my fancies finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th ), Coral Fever excelled by running to his rating over a trip short of his best from an impossible draw:

Coral Fever - 119
Tilbury Fort - 104
Doosra - 102
Arctica - 102
Captain Aldo - 109
Unagi - 97
Matador Man - 104
Social Order - 101
Noble Secret - 99

.....let's hope that the Joburg boys are still sitting on some potential...... as what we have does not look good enough to take on those crackers in the Cape.....:whistle:

Muhtiman wrote:

Sylvester wrote: National Park 106 from 96
Chimi 116 unchanged still highest rated 3 year old in SA.
In Cahoots 88 from 85. This horse must be a banker next time it runs. This should have gone up more.
Alyaasaat 111 unchanged

....National Park now off a fair mark.... will now need to be aimed at the KZN season....but may be a bit range bound as the family back to the 3rd dam never got more than a mile....:oops:

.......even 1600 a bit of a task....:oops:

Not sure brightest move to go to the front. earlier races were on different track where horses were staying on.
mile turfies outside track not easy.

winner however looked pretty classy.

PeterD wrote: The simple answer is that it is far too early to assess the 3 yo crop. In CT we have dozens of well bred 3yos that have still to debut, and every week now we see them stepping out. The two debutants that fought out the second race at Turffontein beating Owlinthetree 10 L are probably already as good as anything running in the 3yo features on the day- they ran the 1400m in a similar time to the feature races.

I expect that by the end of summer we will have enough evidence to judge, but so far I have seen enough to be optimistic about the strength of this crop.
One World is the leading 3yo colt in my book, and Twist of Fate was also very impressive last week.
Clouds Unfold is the leading 3yo filly.

So, Hawwaam was one of those referred to above when winning his debut in a good time, and he duly followed up today. We have yet to see quite how good he is. In defense of National Park, history has shown that to succeed at altitude from the coast, you either need at least 6-8 weeks to acclimatize, or you must run within a couple of days of arrival. He ran a great race on arrival, but a very tough task to follow up 3 weeks later. Trying to go start to finish standside mile also not easy.
Chimichuri Run certainly stepped up his game in CT today. He showed that he stays a fast run mile into a strong headwind against a very tough opponent. He was two lengths clear of Twist of Fate who is a very smart sort.
One World was given his sternest test against his own age group, and he remains, in my opinion, the best 3yo colt and the one they all have to beat in the Cape Guineas.
His form was franked in no uncertain terms by Kasimir’s easy win in the Merchants, having defeated him last time at unfavorable weight terms.
Cirillo banked the cash under a great ride from Anton from the worst draw, but the sales horses are otherwise not great, and the second highest rated, Crown Guardian ran below his best.

The fillies progress race threw up another very smart sort in Silvano’s Pride which won a fast paced race from the front and she now goes into the mix. She has improved at least 5 lengths in each and every one of her 4 starts to date.