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Bivouac burst into contention for the $14 million The TAB Everest after his brilliant win in the Run To The Rose.

“We have been very guarded including three-year-olds in discussions about The Everest but Bivouac’s win was just so good,’’ trainer James Cummings said.

“If Yes Yes Yes had done that, Coolmore would be running him.

“The Golden Rose is next for Bivouac but he is not out of the mix (for The Everest). If we put him in, he would not be any longer in the market than Osborne Bulls or Alizee.’’

Form guru Gary Crispe of Racing And Sports put some perspective into Bivouac’s win last week by affording the colt a lofty 122 Timeform rating.

“This figure puts him on the same level as recent Run To The Rose winners Menari, Astern and Exosphere but just under Pierro and Smart Missile, who both ran 123,’’ he said.

Crispe also said The Everest hopeful Arcadia Queen returned a higher rating in her Theo Marks Stakes win last Saturday than champion Winx achieved when she won the same race four years ago.

“Arcadia Queen returned a 121 Timeform rating which exceeded the 118 figure Winx ran when she won the race,’’ Crispe said.

“Her rating compares very favourably with More Joyous, who ran to 122 winning this race in 2010 before training on to win the George Main Stakes and Toorak Handicap.

“Sunline also ran 122 when she got beaten in a Theo Marks in 1999 by Adam but then she won the Cox Plate that year.

“So, by any measure, a 121 rating by Arcadia Queen is right up there.

“The really good mares that win or run well in the Theo Marks Stakes go on and race well in subsequent starts which is a good sign for this mare.’’

Because The Everest is weight-for-age, Crispe said Arcadia Queen’s rating would be adjusted to about 125 which “puts her right up there with Redzel and those other top sprinters”.

“Redzel went 126 in the Concorde Stakes and that is about as good as he goes so, on the day, if the track is OK, Arcadia Queen has to be one of the very strong chances in The Everest,’’ Crispe said.

HOW can a two-year-old who has won his only five starts, all against his own age, achieve a rating the equal of the great Winx?

Sounds impossible but that is exactly what has happened in Europe when unbeaten English juvenile Pinatubo returned a Timeform rating of 134 winning the Irish National Stakes at The Curragh.

Pinatubo (pictured right) did win the Group 1 race by a widening nine lengths but his high rating seems an over-reaction by the English Timeform experts.

Frankel, the unbeaten champion rated the greatest of all, was given a 128 Timeform rating as a two-year-old — a figure he increased to an unprecedented 148 as an older horse.

Pinatubo’s rating is the highest given to a two-year-old with the exception of Celtic Swing, who returned a scarcely believable 138 after his unbeaten two-year-old season 25 years ago.

But Pinatubo equals the career-high rating of Winx, the mighty mare who retired after winning the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick this year, her 33rd win in succession and her 25th at Group 1 level.

Article taken from Daily Telegraph, published Friday 20th September 2019, Author, Ray Thomas, Page 42.