TIMEFORM have not altered their rating of Desert King following his win in Sunday's Budweiser Irish Derby. He remains on 123, the figure he was given following his three-length victory in the Irish 2,000 Guineas five weeks earlier.
"We cannot rate him better than an average Irish Derby winner but there is the possibility of better to come," said Timeform handicapper Stewart Copeland.
"It is a tricky race to assess," he added. "Dr Johnson was unexposed and his rating has gone up from 114 to 121. Silver Patriarch was clearly well below form and had excuses.
Having originally taken as high a view of the Epsom Derby form as they felt possible, because of the unusually large distances between the first two and the remainder, Timeform have now trimmed Benny The Dip and Silver Patriarch's ratings by a couple of pounds to 128.
However, commenting on Silver Patriarch's performance at The Curragh, handicapper Chris Williams stressed: "You cannot judge the Derby form on this. We will see how Benny The Dip gets on against Bosra Sham on Saturday. May be you can start knocking it then - but he will be doing well to get within five lengths of her."
Peintre Celebre remains Timeform's top rated three-year-old on 131 and, if Bosra Sham is a non-runner, it looks as though another French colt, Helissio, will be the one they all have to beat in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.
His victory in Sunday's Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud has been assessed by Timeform almost as highly as that in last year's Arc. Speaking in glowing terms of Helissio's two triumphs this season, Williams observed: "It is not often that a horse can win those Group Ones by six lengths and five lengths. The last to take the Ganay by as much as six was Mill Reef who won by 10 lengths in 1972."
It was announced yesterday that Turform, in association with Phonovation, will be available on fax. By dialling 1550-111-003 from a fax machine with a hand set (or an off-hook facility), customers can receive a full copy of Turform for the next Irish race meeting, updated by 4.0 p.m. the previous day. For Sunday racing the update is 5.0 p.m. on Friday.
