Big thanks again to Mark Pierrepont for his digitally recorded split times to ‘the halfway’ (approx). They make for interesting reading with a number of trends appearing.

To halfway:

Kevin Hutton’s Signet Ace once again leads the table for the fastest time to halfway.

The fact that he was six spots slower than in his second round run is even more intriguing when you compare his 58 metre sectionals (traps to winning line).

Last week Ace clocked a stunning 4.09 compared to this week’s 4.22. So from the line to the halfway mark he actually showed seven spots improvement this week.

Bockos Belly was second quickest last week but didn’t trap in the same manner and was 33rd of the 48 runners to the same mark.

Knocknaboul Syd finally got his trapping act together and he did it from the boxes. Having clocked 4.26 and 4.28 in his first two sectionals, he popped away in 4.10 this time around. His ‘traps to halfway’ sectionals in the first and third round are therefore identical.

Deerjet Sydney was third on the table last week and once again showed his consistency. Although three spots slower than last week, two of those can be attributed to those first 58m: 4.21/4.23.

In terms of consistency, regular readers may recall a Zoom call where we highlighted the consistency of Tenpin. He had produced identical ‘first half’ runs and within a single spot in the second half of each qualifier prior to Saturday. The graphic confirms that observation.

Before we leave this section, it might be worth considering the relationship between early pace and qualification.

Of the 24 fastest times to halfway – 19 went on to qualify for the quarter finals.

As the graphic shows, De Machine was the slowest runner to halfway to find himself in the next round.

From halfway:

You don’t need a table to know that Unlock Unlock is the strongest finisher in the event.

Quickest in the first round, she was marginally overshadowed by Ballymac Wild next time out but re-established her class with another flying finish in heat three when short headed by Forest Gold.

Cold As Ice is already established as a top class stayer and Jimmy Fenwick’s black was second quickest in the latter stages. His three sectionals are separated by seven spots but with nine spots between his 58m split.

Particularly unlucky not to qualify were Roxholme Sheik and Jaguar Macie who can normally build on flying early performances to produce sizzling times.

Although both were in the top ten finishers, neither was able to overcome the early bother.

Aussie Captain, Pacemaker Ted and Bubbly Magnum were the three qualifiers who were probably taking the deepest breaths as they crossed the winning line.

 

 

Winning times

Our final graphic shows the winning times for all of Saturday’s qualifiers.

(Note – all rounds use actual winning times rather than going calculated clocks)

As an additional point of interest, we have split the table at halfway with the red line.

To put it at its simplest, Tenpin, Warzone Tom and Roxholme Sheik would have qualified for the quarter finals if qualification was based on times.

In the case of the first two, even their consistency didn’t save them.

As for Bockos Belly, Toolmaker Sydney and Bubbly Magnum – it could be your year. . .