From the racing post:
www.racingpost.co.uk/news/guides.sd?psec...val&category=Fallout
Curlin impresses experts but stays on same mark
by Howard Wright
THE official view of Curlin's record-margin victoryin Saturday's Dubai World Cup - as expressed by a four-strong group of international handicappers - was to be impressed by the colt as a racehorse but not to get carried away with the single performance.
Curlin went into the race as globally the best horse in training, judged by his World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings mark of 129, and he will be on the same figure when the latest top 50 horses' list is published later this week, panel joint-chairmen Nigel Gray and Garry O'Gorman confirmed on Saturday.
Gray said: "I was as impressed as I hoped and expected I would be. Once Curlin had shown in his previous race that he was suited by the track, he was entitled to win like that. But he still had to do it, and he did.
"It's great for international racing that he's still in training, and I look forward to following him through the rest of the year."
Emirates Racing Authority handicapper Melvin Day tempered his enthusiasm for Curlin, whose winning margin of seven and three quarter lengths eclipsedthe previous race best of six lengths by Dubai Millennium, by pointing to the night's opposition.
He said: "The first four all ran to their ratings, which is satisfying for handicappers, but there wasn't anything in the field in a position to give hima real race.
"You can't knock him, but he didn't show me the 'wow' factor."
However, Mike Wanklin, who is in the process of transferring his senior handicapper's badge from South Africa to Singapore, took a different line, while agreeing that Curlin should remain on 129.
He said: "In terms of the rating performance, he didn't impress, but given that this was a record winning margin and he put up the third-fastest time for the race my overall impression is that he could be the next 'big thing'.
"I think he's going to make it look easier and easier, and I can't see him being beaten before he ends his career."
Wanklin was still shaking his head about South Africa's two home-form winners on the night - JayPeg and Sun Classique - for reasons of the head as much as the heart.
He explained: "They're both very good horses and may have improved their form in Dubai, but I still couldn't imagine them winning as they did.
"If they are this good, what does that make a horse like Pocket Power, who hasn't run outside South Africa?"
Jay Peg and Sun Classique will both come out of Saturday's races rated 120, around 5lb higher than previously, but Wanklin pointed out that on South Africa's rating list Pocket Power is 118, yet in his belief he is at least 7lb superior to the Dubai Duty Free and Sheema Classic winners.
Hinting that South Africa's general ratings level may have to be adjusted upwards, Gray said: "South African horses aren't trained to run abroad, but through the exploits of Mike de Kock and Herman Brown, Dubai is where we find out how good the best South African horses are.
"Saturday's races give us very useful lines of form, and as a panel we may have to examine the levels, inorder to get more certainty."
South American-bought Honour Devil, on the mark for De Kock before Sun Classique, will be rated 121, 1lb higher than stablemate Asiatic Boy was last year, for winning the UAE Derby by four and a quarter lengths, which thehandicappers assessed as a margin of 8lb.
Explaining the reason for placing the 2008 winner's form above 2007's, Day said: "Asiatic Boy won by nine and a half lengths, but it was a poorer field. We believe Honour Devil has beaten a stronger field, headed by his stable's Royal Vintage and two useful, in-form fillies in Cocoa Beach and Light Green."
The biggest mover in the international ratings after Saturday is locally-trained sprinter Star Crowned, who got in the way of a US-based clean sweep by finishing third to Benny The Bull and Idiot Proof in the Golden Shaheen.
Star Crowned has gone up 6lb to a rating of 110, completing a 32lb rise since he was bought out of Brian Meehan's yard for just 2,000gns at Tattersalls by ever-optimistic syndicate organiser and trainer Rashed Bouresly.
