IT is the first of the British classics this weekend, and to celebrate I thought it would be a good time to introduce you to one of our new metrics we will be using through the summer, writes Page Fuller.

We all know that how a horse finishes off a race is pretty important, but have you ever considered how the start of a race could affect its finishing position?

We have now launched our ‘0-20mph’ metric which will hopefully bring us one step closer to understanding that. It measures how long it takes for a horse to reach 20mph at the start of the race.

So if you have a front-running horse and it takes over 3.5 seconds to get to 20mph, it is going to make its life a lot harder at the start of the race, and vice versa.

Decisive

Arabian Crown may be quite short in the betting for the Epsom Derby, after his decisive win in the Classic Trial at Sandown on Friday, but we think this is justified after what he did. He looked very straightforward, making all of the running and then quickening nicely up the hill clocking an FSP of 104.33%.

Another reflection of how straightforward he is, was how sharp he was leaving the stalls. He was the third quickest, only taking 2.88 seconds to get to 20mph. If he wants to be anywhere close to the pace in the Derby, he will have to be quick out of the stalls so he doesn’t get caught in traffic.

Off the back of this last run, this shouldn’t be a problem, so we’re looking forward to seeing how he steps forward on the hallowed first Saturday of June.