THE flat season kicked off on easy ground at Naas on Sunday and Noble Nation impressed as the opening winner of the new campaign, though the last-to-first success of Dance For Chester in the following sprint handicap looks additionally eye-catching on the RaceiQ metrics, writes Will Hayler.

Across the eight-race card, this Far Above At Compas Stallions Handicap was the only race to achieve a Par rating on the Race iQ Time Analysis index (all other contests rated as Slow) and Dance For Chester – slowest of all of the 11 runners in the opening furlong – collared two race-fit rivals out in front (finished second and third) as the winner ran the final furlong 0.39s faster than the runner-up, a significant difference for a race over the minimum trip.

While there’s an element of Dance For Chester not slowing down as much as the rest, his Finishing Speed Percentage of 98.52% doesn’t compare too badly to the Race iQ Par over this course and distance of 100.27%, while he had to angle out for his run and slowly drifted to the far-side rail in the closing stages in a performance you could mark up.

His stride length of 7.3m was easily the largest figure recorded in this race (7.17m of runner-up Eric Lock the next best) while the winner’s stride frequency was the joint-lowest figure in the field at 2.34 strides per second. That cadence hints that stepping up to seven furlongs on similar ground could bring about more improvement.