Who is going to emerge as champion sprinter?

Champion sprinter: Who will be crowned in 2024?

By David Ord

Horse Racing

Mon July 15, 2024 · 8M ago

It's a confusing division and David Ord looks at the race to be crowned champion sprinter this season following the latest Group One showdown.

So who’s going to end the season as Timeform's highest-rated sprinter?

Well, the jury is very much out following Saturday’s My Pension Expert July Cup at Newmarket.

The winner Mill Stream has received a 4 lbs rise to his master rating – taking him to 122 and joint-top spot in the standings. He joins Australian speedster Asfoora and our missing friend Bradsell at the top of the tree.

But with 3 lbs separating the top 10 in the list, it's fair to say there’s no obvious candidate to follow in the hoofprints of the likes of Dayjur, Oasis Dream and Bataash into the speedballs' hall of fame.

We thought it might be Inisherin following his brilliant Sandy Lane and Commonwealth Cup performances but 123p pre-Newmarket became 120 in the cold, light of day of his fifth-place Newmarket finish. He suddenly has work to do.

So does Vandeek, who proved to connections that he had trained on at least when coming forward from his Sandy Lane rear view of his rival to finish third behind Mill Stream. He settles down on 119.

The next race will tell us more, whether that be the Prix Maurice De Gheest, Sky Bet City Of York Stakes or Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock.

Timeform's top-rated sprinters

Asfoora could go higher in her two forthcoming British engagements, under a penalty in the King George Qatar Stakes at Goodwood and then a dash down the York straight for the Nunthorpe.

Mill Stream will wait for Haydock, while our wait to see Bradsell in 2024 goes on. He holds all the big entries to come and looked so good in winning last year’s King Stand but wasn’t at the same level when third at York and fifth at the Curragh on two subsequent starts.

But when on song he can shift – as can Big Evs, who himself has proved he’s no one-season wonder, following his headline-grabbing juvenile campaign, with a win at York and trailblazing third behind Asfoora and Regional at Royal Ascot. The way he went through that race suggested he could give both the front two more to think about at Goodwood and York.

There were a few raised eyebrows when Regional came out of the July Cup on the morning of the race because of the ground, but he remains a player in all the top sprints when conditions allow him to run.

And conditions will play a big role in the race to be champion sprinter 2024.

We have two separate groups battling it out. Among the five-furlong speedballs we’ll have the answers by the time York has come and gone. Will Asfoora again have the legs of her rivals? Will the speed tests suit the freewheeling Big Evs better and allow him to hit a mid-120 number or even higher?

Is Regional, reliable Regional, going to turn up and go bigger than he did at Ascot which on performance ratings at least represented a personal best?

And over six... well it's hard to be sure.

Will a wet autumn at Haydock and Ascot allow Mill Stream to build on what he did on Saturday, will Inisherin prove as good as he looked at Ascot or can Vandeek come forward again and finish a race as well as he goes through it?

It’s a division where we have lots of questions and few answers at the moment. And the suspicion is that come the close of play, 3 lbs might still separate the top ten.

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