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Sir Delius confirmed he’s top dog at 2000m – how did he and the other Group One winners rate?

Queen Elizabeth II Stakes – Sir Delius (127)

Sir Delius dominated a high-pressure, searching test of stamina in the Queen Elizabeth, running to a new peak RAS rating of 127 in the process.

The time figure is well into the 120's here which is rare – they have run this hard and fast throughout and Sir Delius was simply the best and toughest horse at the trip, improving three pounds on his 124 win in a much slower time figure win in the Turnbull Stakes.

To further evidence the strong pace – Lindermann had a shock to the system and was out the back, Nash getting crafty but riding him perfectly efficiently back there and getting him to run basically to his absolute best again.

Every horse outside of Lindermann has put in a positive split and come home (slightly) slower than ideal but Sir Delius and Autumn Glow have both been ridden very well in the scenario – one has stayed strongly, the other hasn't quite.

She certainly travelled into it as she has over shorter trips, and while it's easy to pigeonhole a horse off one data point – this seems a fairly solid one that she's better over a mile.

That's not to say Autumn Glow can't win at 2000m – she's run to 122 at Racing & Sports on Saturday – that would still win over 20% of the Queen Elizabeth's this century.

Whether she can turn the tables on Delius is another question – and that may be a moot one as I doubt we see Autumn Glow try 2000m again.

For her now, she can win everything up to a mile in Australia, but if they won't try her over further again, she surely has to go to Royal Ascot next year for a Queen Anne and enhance her already fabulous reputation that way.

Winx didn't go, opting to create history with four Cox Plates and that's fine (as much as racing fans wanted to see her go) – with Autumn Glow, that sort of legacy in a big race is unattainable, so why not have a crack overseas?

That may also be on the cards for Sir Delius who seems unlikely to go down the Melbourne Cup path after last year.

Hong Kong and Japan would both be awesome to see – the Japan Cup has taken anywhere from 135 (Equinox) to 121 (Shonan Pandora) to win this century, while a Hong Kong Vase at 2400m ranges from 119-127 and is often the slightly softer of the four big ones at HKIR.

With a Japan Cup only a month after the Cox Plate, Hong Kong (6 weeks) might be the more logical (and more winnable) option.

Australian Oaks – Ohope Wins (111)

The New Zealand Oaks winner became just the fourth filly to go on and win the ATC Oaks, joining Pennyweka, Bonneval and Domino to do so.

They've run this at a solid clip, at least through the middle when Stand My Ground pushed on to lead and that action really benefitted Ohope Wins as it strung the field out a touch and allowed McDonald to get into the three-wide line with Profoundly just having to chase a touch earlier than Berry may have liked.

That said, she was clearly the rightful winner on the day and was finishing faster than anything, running to a new peak RAS rating of 111 having gone 109 in the NZ Oaks.

A rating of 111 is two pounds below the winning average this century at 113, but right in line with the ten-year average.

Bonneval had been rated 110 in the NZ Oaks and improved to go 119 at Randwick while Pennyweka went from 102 to 106 in a low year.

Sydney Cup – Changingoftheguard (115)

Jason Collett led them a merry dance over the two miles in the Sydney Cup, running some frankly absurd sectionals mid-race on fast ground, clocking a few 14+ second splits in an absolute dawdle.

Changingoftheguard just had too easy a lead for the others to run him down, sprinting home in 23.78 his final 400m and 12.12 his final 200m – his finishing speed percentage was 108.4% despite leading, and the runner up, Soul Of Spain, had an FSP of a whopping 111% which is right at the pointy end of the curve.

In terms of his rating, Changingoftheguard has run to 115 at Racing & Sports which is the best performance he's put up in Australia – he had run to 116 winning the Chester Vase by 6.5 lengths as a three-year-old and also 118 when third in the Hardwicke behind Pyledriver and West Wind Blows, beating home Deauville Legend.

115 actually isn't bad for a Sydney Cup with a few lowly rated winners in recent years – just edging the 20-year average of 114.

Queen Of The Turf Stakes – Idle Flyer (119)

Idle Flyer was beautifully handled by Zac Lloyd to win a quality edition of the Queen Of The Turf against some highly rated mares, running to a new peak of 119 at Racing & Sports.

She was arguably the horse primed to peak for the race as her sole grand final and that is worth something with Lady Shenandoah, Treasurethe Moment and Pride Of Jenni all regressing off their last start runs.

Jenni went out at a strong clip but certainly not as fast as in the Australian Cup, she was clearly just flat as plenty predicted she would be, and Lady Shenandoah and Treasurethe Moment have also ridden the way to beat Jenni by sticking close enough to her.

That pair have also gone slightly too hard while Idle Flyer was perfectly positioned but she still came away late and was the right winner on the day.

Her rating of 119 stacks up well for a typical Queen Of The Turf – only bettered by More Joyous (127 & 120), Fangirl (122), Mnemosyne (120) and Alizee (120) this century.

That's ahead of Zougotcha (118) and Atishu (118) in recent years, and also out-rates Matthew Smith's other good mare Nimalee who ran to 116 in 2022.

I'd like to see Idle Flyer have a look at 2000m in Queensland rather than come back to a Stradbroke. The Doomben Cup will probably take a bit more winning but she's bred to get a bit of a trip and now would be the time to try.

Of the others, Lady Shenandoah arguably could've won if ridden just a spot further back from the pace and has been remarkably consistent all campaign – she's run to 116 on Saturday and in her past 11 starts, she's been between 112-119 in every start.

Treasurethe Moment is tricky, again not really loving the Jenni tempo but she was still solid, we probably just need to lower the bar with her.

She's A Hustler was the eye catcher late for fourth, running to 113 first up. She'd run 116 in the Zipping Classic before a spell and looks right on track to be bettering that number over the Winter before looking towards a Caulfield Cup.