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A look at how Little Brose’s Blue Diamond win compared with others from a ratings perspective.
We won't know for another three weeks whether Little Brose can become the first horse in a dozen years to complete the Blue Diamond/Golden Slipper double, but the son of Per Incanto set a juvenile benchmark on Saturday
The Ben and Jd Hayes -trained colt posted the highest Timeform rating recorded by a two-year-old this season when he won the $2 million Group 1.
He went to 114 when he outlasted unlucky duo Don Corleone and Arkansaw Kid in the 1200-metre event to add his name to the honour roll.
But while Little Brose's Diamond rating is the highest recorded by a juvenile this season, it is down on the Diamond's past-decade average of 117.2. Four colts have won the Slipper in the past decade – Vancouver, Capitalist, Farnan and Stay Inside – and all rated 122 in the process.
Little Brose's Diamond rating was one pound higher than last year's winner Daumier, who posted the same mark as 2019 winner Lyre.
The only Diamond winner to rate lower since Timeform ratings consistently assessed the race from 1986 was True Jewels (112) in 2001.
Three of the five horses who have completed the Diamond/Slipper double have come in that time – Bounding Away, Courtza and Sepoy – who rated 122, 120 and 124 respectively.
Sepoy shares the honour of the highest-rated Diamond winner with 1988 champion Zeditave, who was an unlucky sixth placegetter in the Golden Slipper.
But while Little Brose will need to elevate to win the Slipper, connections can take confidence out of his formline.
The horse he assumed the honour of highest-rating performance of the season from was Exceed And Excel colt Cylinder, who went 111 to win the Group 2 Silver Slipper on February 18.
That was Cylinder's first start since finishing second to Little Brose in the Merson Cooper Stakes.
Further clarity around the Golden Slipper picture should be provided this Saturday when the Group 2 Todman Stakes and Group 2 Reisling Stakes, traditionally regarded as the premier guides to the Slipper, are run at Randwick.
Cylinder joins Empire Of Japan (109 peak rating), Red Resistance (108), King's Gambit (107) and Café Millennium (105+) among the Todman entries, while Slipper favourite Learning To Fly (106) headlines the Reisling entries.
