ATLANDO IS GROUP CLASS

ATLANDO (38) won a good conditions race in Group 3 class time at Chantilly. The key to him seems to be the ground. He's lost all his starts on anything but genuinely good to firm or firmer going. But given a fast surface he always runs his race. So far in five tries on fast ground he's won three times, lost by a short head and run a close fourth to a subsequent Group 1 winner. The trouble is you'd never tell this from the official French going reports which are based on that totally useless tool, the penetrometer.

French going reports are so grossly misleading I'm amazed French punters aren't up in arms about them. However it seems that in France there is very little call for accurate racing data, or indeed any racing data at all. As far as I know there are no published handicap ratings other than the official ones, no published speed ratings and precious little pre-race analysis of the sort we're used to seeing in Britain and Ireland. So it's perhaps understandable that the official going report for one of Atlando's wins was left at 'very soft' even though the race timers show it was actually lightning fast.

In any event, as long as he gets his ground, Atlando should continue to do well and ought to be given another shot at a pattern race. Of course, the trick will be to tell what the going actually is when Atlando next races. My best advice is to look at the times of races run at recent nearby meetings, consult the Paris weather report on something like www.weather.com and make a guess.

DIVINE PROPORTIONS IS NOT THAT FAST

DIVINE PROPORTIONS (38) is fast shaping up as this year's 'horse of the century'. But although she's now won eight times out of eight and taken four Group 1's she just doesn't register very high on the clock. She only ran a few ticks faster than ordinary handicappers achieved over the same course and distance in the next race when taking the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) last Sunday at Longchamp.

I awarded Divine Proportions a speed rating of 38 for her win in the Pouliches (French 1,000 Guineas). She earned exactly the same speed rating from me last Sunday. Maybe she's better than that. But so far she's yet to face really tough competition. Perhaps she'll improve when she does. However when I see the same speed rating twice in a row and it's the biggest a horse has ever earned I'm inclined to think that's how fast it is.

I'll be opposing Divine Proportions with some confidence when she takes on older males in Group 1 company. I think she is over-rated.

FORGET ABOUT SHAMARDAL

Shamardal (35) ran an appallingly slow time to take the Prix du Jockey Club. This is perhaps not all that surprising as his jockey, Frankie Dettori, was allowed to set a pedestrian pace up front before kicking on.

Maybe Shamardal can run fast. But I seriously doubt that he is up to winning another Group 1. He basically stole this race from Hurricane Run who put up a tremendous performance to come from behind and get so close despite once more shifting his ground when getting into stride.

This was an unfortunate first edition of the Prix du Jockey Club at it’s new shorter distance. Everyone is going to remember it as the race where the best horse only ran second because the distance was too short and the pace too slow.