UK Horse Racing Tips

Several racecourses in Britain have a five-furlong course that is described as ‘one of the fastest in the country’ but, by definition, the fastest course must be the one that has covered in the fastest time. That honour goes to Epsom Downs, whose five-furlong course is downhill virtually throughout and was covered, on June 2, 2012, by Stone Of Folca, trained by John Best, in a time of 53.69 seconds.

The 4-year-old, who carried 8st 12lb to victory, averaged just shy of 42 miles per hour and beat the previous record, set by Spark Chief – another 4-year-old, but carrying just 7st 12lb – on August 30, 1983, by 0.01 seconds. That said, the fastest time ever over the five-furlong course at Epsom Downs was 53.60 seconds, recorded by Indigenous on June 2, 1960, 52 years to the day before Stone Of Folca. However, Indigenous was hand-timed and therefore considered to have been flattered, by several tenths of a second, when compared with the later, electronically-timed records.

So, Epsom Downs is officially the fastest five-furlong course in Britain, but how do the other ‘fastest’ courses compare, in terms of record times? The five-furlong course at Goodwood is, like Epsom Downs, downhill most of the way and the venue for the Group Two King George Stakes in July or early August each year. Indeed, it was in that race the Rudi’s Pet, a 5-year-old trained by the late David ‘Dandy’ Nicholls – aptly known as ‘The Sprint King’ – set the current course record, of 56.01 seconds, on July 27, 1999.

North of the border, the five-furlong course at Musselburgh is flat, with slight undulations and even a gentle rise throughout the final furlong or so, but is, nonetheless, the venue for the Scottish Sprint Cup, run in June each year. Billed as ‘Scotland’s Fastest Race’ and worth £100,000 in prize money, the Scottish Sprint Cup regularly attracts some of the fastest horses in Britain, a fact reflected by the fact that the course record, of 56.77 seconds, was set by Caspian Prince, a 9-year-old trained by Michael Appleby, as recently as June 9, 2018. Ironically, Caspian Prince has won the ‘Epsom Dash’ – the race in which Stone Of Folca set the world record for five furlongs in 2012 – three times, in 2014, 2016 and 2017, but his fastest winning time was 54.75 seconds, in 2014.

Staying in the north, in North Yorkshire in fact, Catterick is an exceedingly sharp track, with a five-furlong course that starts quite steeply downhill and continues downhill throughout. However, the most valuable race of the season, the ‘Catterick Dash’, is run in October each year, when going conditions are rarely, if ever, conducive to lightening-fast times. That may account for the fact that the course record, of 57.10 seconds, set by Kabcast, a 4-year-old trained by the late David Chapman – who made all under 9st 8lb – on July 6, 1989, still stands nearly three decades later.

Comments are closed.