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Rubick has stormed to the lead in the race to be Timeform’s Champion Juvenile with a debut performance rated 122+ placing him in illustrious company.
Only Charge Forward, who won the Todman and was narrowly denied in a vintage Golden Slipper, boasts such a debut figure in recent times.
With the second and third placegetters also making their first appearances the bare form might appear as puzzling as Erno Rubik’s “Magic Cube” from which the winner draws his name but robust handicapping techniques leave Timeform with little doubt as to the worth of this performance.
Race standardisation points to a figure in the low 120’s but it is the clock that shows the form’s true value.
The timefigure returned by Rubick, earned with a time well inside standards both overall and on the day, is that of a high-class juvenile and played a key role in arriving at a rating of 122.
The rating is higher than any recorded by a juvenile last season and not far short of the above average Champion Juvenile’s of the two proceeding seasons Sepoy (rated 124) and Pierro (127).
That pair returned debut figures of 111p and 110p respectively, further illustrating the regard in which Rubick is now held.
Trainer Gerald Ryan produced the smart Snitzel to run 120 on debut back in 2004 but in Rubick, in the opinion of Timeform at least, he has one better.
The Blue Diamond is the reported aim for Rubick and he will go there with outstanding claims.
In the last 20 years only Sepoy, Real Saga and star-filly Alinghi have gone into the Blue Diamond with a figure to match.
Sepoy went on to record a rating of 124 in a 4 ¼ length romp while Alinghi didn’t have to produce that peak running to 120 to take out the valuable prize.
Real Saga had to settle for second but his reputation was hardly damaged with luck against and he ended the year at the top of the two-year-old table.
2002 winner Bel Esprit went into the race rated 121 as did Testa Rossa in 1999 only to run into the then unexposed Redoute’s Choice, a champion on and off the track and brother to the dam of Rubick, Sliding Cube.
Sliding Cube put up a smart performance of her own at two, running to 116 winning the listed Keith Mackay and returned at three to win the Group Three San Domenico with a similar figure.
Elsewhere Mohave and Eloping put up solid performances in winning their respective Blue Diamond Previews.
Eloping showed good speed to make all of the running but a figure of 102 is historically on the low side for the race while Mohave’s 109 puts him right on the average for the colt’s division.
He will likely head to the Blue Diamond as his stables second-seed with Earthquake, rated 113+ and currently the biggest threat to Rubick, expected to line up.
