One of Australia’s leading form experts, Danile O’Sullivan, has used emperical weight-for-age data to demonstrate that Saturday’s Gr1 Cox Plate win by Lys Gracieux was inferior to each of Winx’s four wins in the weight-for-age Moonee Valley feature, reports racing.com.
O’Sullivan, whilst acknowledging the times and sectionals were strong, rated the performance of Lys Graxieux a 108, compared to Winx’s 113, 115.5, 110 and 111.
“The time and sectionals were strong, but they certainly weren’t what I would call world class,” he said.
“The style of the win has some extra merit and it’s likely that if Lys Gracieux found a position up near the lead in the early stages then I’m sure she wins the Cox Plate by further and rates even higher, perhaps challenging that 110 mark or a touch better, but we can only assess what happened on the day.” O’Sullivan noted.
“While it’s unreasonable to compare her to Winx, Saturday’s 108 rating win is totally dominant over anything we can foresee an Australian trained middle distance WFA horses producing at the moment and that’s why she was so impressive.”
