... any other ideas, then just, you know, answers on a postcard.

Yeah, 'cause, uh, Xavier Ospero never got to ride for Rebecca, unfortunately.

But Adonias' form claim.

So, uh, talk about, as you'd know better than I would, Nick, how the draw can be a leveler.

And I think on the form book, Ruiva, the Wesley Ward trainee, does have better credentials than Adonias, but one has copped stall one, Adonias, the, the fast, uh, Lily Agnes winner for Rebecca Menzies.

Second in a Molkum as well.

Whereas Ruiva, back from a defeat, when probably not on song, uh, when she ran at Del Mar the last time out.

Um, what's gonna happen?

I've mentioned Johannesburg multiple times on this podcast, Dan, but it is 25 years ago and quite a bit of water is under the bridge since he won four Group 1 races in a season.

Yeah, I don't think you got enough credit for that, Nick.

But off the bat, you were put on the spot and you answered.

You absolutely delivered because Johannesburg is still the leader.

Four wins at Group 1 level.

Two of those in the UK and Ireland.

Two non-UK and Ireland.

please.

I'd be interested to see where they sat historically.

Yeah, I thought we'd try and put a few figures to the names.

And I suppose it says quite a lot about the difficulty of horse racing that for all the wealth of talent he had, Sheikh Ahmed, he never had a horse better than Matoto going back to the 80s, early 90s.

1.34 peak time form rating.

The second horse in the list for horses that... have been in his ownership, but perhaps didn't show their best form in his ownership.

Also got to mention on the podcast yesterday, that was Cave Tar who peaked at 130, ran twice in the yellow and black silks as a young horse when trained by Sir Michael Stout.

But of the more familiar names, the ones that we associate with those famous silks, Ade Eb was 129, current uh star for the stable alma cam at one to eight for the late owner sorry and if raj 127 and then taboo just behind again he did a lot of his stuff for godolphin in later years but he was a champion two-year-old for mick shannon whilst in the silks of shake akman al maktoum and was one of the best two-year-olds that time form have rated over the last 20 years or so ago and he got I suppose the sadness as well, beyond everything, from an equine perspective, is that 102 large P for Sherad, the full bulleter, to the other good horse of William Haggis.

I mean, you're not going to find one better than that, are you? But I'd be interested to know which horses have progressed most according to Timeform.

To what extent do we take account of that when analysing his performance? And where does he sit amongst British trained sprinters?

Yeah, it does obviously exaggerate the margins, but I feel like this is a conversation you and I have been going on for maybe three years now, going back to the time when we were trying to find out the last British or Irish trained sprinter to win two Group Ones in a row.

That's still not the case necessarily with... with this horse, Armrack, but he's a fast-improving sprinter, it appears, and you're right to hint towards it.

He now is the highest-rated sprinter trained in UK or Ireland on a rating of 126.

That puts him £4 ahead of the July Cup winner, Comanche Brave, and another two ahead of Lake Forest, who obviously has done a lot of his achievement on the continent in any case.

Funnily enough, Kying Rising obviously is set apart.

He's a rating of 137.

And what about the other arc trials, Varandeer and Friendly Soul, but probably those in behind her sort of staking their claims, like Sunley?

What have they finally come up with?

Yeah, you're right to say that.

I definitely have.

But I think it's a time for us to exercise some sort of stone cold caution, really.

Fantastic performance.

Little doubt about it.

But we haven't saw fit to alter his rating.

It still begs the question as to why the world handicapers, the world thyroid handicappers, can't get him anywhere above 131.

Right, Dan Barber, first of all, if this Melbourne Cup pipe dream is to be realised for, yes, you guessed it, Constitution Hill, how much does he need to improve to get on the board in Kempton's September stakes, to get in amongst it?

Yeah, Melbourne Cup is a long way away, isn't it? When you consider that an element, of course, of opportunity over potential where Constitution Hill is concerned.

But his figure of 106 large P denotes in the prospect of further significant improvement.

have to be set against the fact that it's taken a performance of around 120 to win the September stakes in an average renewal.

We've had horses rated as low as Hamish's 113 winning the race in recent times, but Mosterdaf ran to 122, Baybridge and Giovalotto were both 121.

So that suggests there's a fair bridge to gap, to say the least.

But particularly when you see a horse like Bay City Roller in the line-up, I mean, It's just about still warm, that Epsom form, but it was a career best from him, rated 1-2-6.

How much has leading change got to find to be a Breeders' Cup classic contender? This is the horse who's undefeated after three runs, including the Travers on Saturday.

But to your eye, Queensland? Has the competition standard lifted? Has it dropped? Is it attracting a different type of player to when you arrived? And how does that place Queensland sides to compete nationally, as we saw last season with Moreton City and this season with you guys on the national stage, Cup and Championship?

Yeah, it's a great question.

I do believe it has improved.

I do think it's probably a different type of player, maybe post-COVID even.

There's a lot of really young talent in the state of the minute.

And I know there's plenty down there in Victoria and New South Wales that kind of eventually end up moving on to other endeavours and they want to get experience down south, so to speak.

But as far as I'm concerned, and we're probably, you know, centralised to this at the minute, in particular this season, that we've got a really young cohort of talented Queensland boys who... who've been given an opportunity this year and they've grabbed it with both hands.

What brought you out to Australia and what about it has kept you here?

Who do you fancy for the race?

I think it, I'd say it's stay at home.

I mean, Love Me Tender's a total unknown guanxi.

He makes the race almost impossible, doesn't he? I mean, we know so little about him, but class leaders of horse have got a lot of time for William Haggis.

He's third in the betting at the minute.

Don't think we saw him at his best last time, but we certainly did see him at his best at this track the time before.

Strong form that looks a horse that will relish this sort of examination.

start now.

For the people at home listening who merely just be discovering or learning about yourself and the Lions during your famous Australia Cup run at the moment, talk to me about your footballing journey and your pathway to owning the top job at the Lions at the start of the year.

Yeah, so I've been at the club for seven years now in a couple of different roles.

Manchester born, moved over to Brisbane in 2019 and joined straight into the club early 2020.

As I said, I've had a couple of different roles there.

I've been the junior technical director pretty much for that whole stint.

I was an assistant 22, I believe it was.

Then three years ago, I moved into the NPL seniors as an assistant.

Being the assistant coach last year and now the head coach this season, what adjustments did you make, did your team make in order to do one better this year and secure that premiership title?

Uh, oh, I'd love, I'd love your sort of set up really from a Timeform perspective of Ombudsman versus Constitution River.

Yeah, I think there are so many angles you could go at with this.

Um, so the, but the s- specter of Boecho still sits over those three-year-olds, but fundamentally what this does is pitches the highest rated middle distance horse in the world against the highest three-year-old over any distance in the world, in the absence of Boecho, and that's Constitution River.

And it also sets up something that we think is quite interesting.

Um, potentially we could have two three-year-olds break the 130 barrier.

If Constitution River lowers the colors of Ombudsman, the highlight good is that he'll be advancing his form to do so.

His 129 might be a low 130s figure, and you've got to go back to 2021, St Mark's Basilica and Adyar for two three-year-olds rated in excess of 130, or in excess of 129 as it is.

Um, beware Willie Mullins is not exactly something we haven't said before, but when it comes to, uh, the Ebor particularly.

Do you feel as though that as the season's getting longer, the more games going that th- this side is getting better and they're being more clinical in their, in their finish, especially since Alex Becker's, um, been out with injury?

I think so.

I think we've always been a team that have created plenty of chances, um, even when we've not been, you know, on top or dominating in games.

Tonight obviously we, we took our chances a little bit, uh, more definitively than when we played against Perth, as you rightly mentioned.

The team is getting better.

We...

The ceiling's, you know, as, as high as it wants to be for a lot of our players.

Like, what does that mean to you to bring that sort of joy to people in an environment like this?

What did he do in such a light career, and how many horses are capable of doing such a thing?

Well, not very many at all, Nick.

I got some data involving, um, horses who've had no more than six runs and the highest ratings achieved amongst them.

They had to have run at least once in the UK for a bit of ballast, and there's only one horse that bettered Bo Echo's one three three across his six start career.

That was Lammtarra who did it across four.

He ran to one three four.

Subotica, a French horse, Arc winner, was one three one from his six starts.

Uh, not wishing to take any guilt off that Gingerbread, but actually, if Constitution River gave Ombudsman a good thumping, Ombudsman has been one of those horses that has dragged other horses' ratings up over the last 18 months.

Dan, just how good was he?

Extremely good.

A top level horse is his record.

A quick glance at his form figures would attest.

He's not quite with Night Nurse.

He's 182, the highest rated hurdler of all time.

Oris Debrack, who was 180 alongside Monksfield, but he was 176, the highest rated winner of a stay as heard, or going back to 1972, and his career in numbers is astonishing, really.

Why?

Probably a little bit harder than you ex- one would expect.

For sure.

Thank you, first of all.

Listen, what a, an event it's been tonight.

So proud of the club and the squad.

Um, we really had to, to dig deep at times, but, uh, I think we actually played it exceptionally well and we, we looked to obviously move them and, and really work them entire amount, knowing that they're probably gonna be a little bit underdone towards the latter end of the game, them being a little bit earlier into their pre-season.

And I thought we put on a, a really good spectacle and an exciting game of football.

Playing sort of in middle of season as well, do you bank on the boys just basically running over the top and, despite the equalizer, looked in control for a lot of that, uh, that extra time period?

How important was it to stay focused on the job you were playing and not worry about the magnitude of the game?

Yeah, absolutely.

You've got to play the game rather than the occasion.

Of course, there's a big crowd.

Everyone's looking forward to the occasion and probably the match-up between the two sides.

I think first half, especially in the first 15-20 minutes, was quite scrappy, quite end-to-end, probably nervous on both sides.

But once we found a bit of rhythm, then there was chances both ends and, you know, thankfully we were able to take ours and secure the three points.

How much of a change was there to make in the front there with the injury that I was expecting? How much of a change was there to make in the front there?

for you?

A little bit of both.

Obviously, they've had quite a few changes in personnel player-wise since the last edition of the A-League last year.

But one thing we do know is that they'll have plenty of quality in the side.

Obviously, we do know personally one of the players... which I'm sure we'll get on to in a little while.

But no, they're a really good outfit.

They're coached and they'll be in a good manner in their pre-season to ensure that they're here to obviously put up a good performance.

What was the reaction out there at the Lion Ritzons when the draw did come through and you were playing against an A-League side? As you mentioned, there is a bit of a connection between the two sides, which the Hall brothers, Mitch up against Henry, makes it quite an interesting tie.

Post a free job today at linkedin.com/quality.

Right? But what are your fish eating? And what's the feed conversion ratio? Well, he goes on to tell me, "It's such a rich system that the fish are eating what they'd be eating in the wild.

The plant biomass, the phytoplankton, the zooplankton, it's what feeds the fish.

The system is so healthy, it's totally self-renewing.

There is no feed." Ever heard of a farm that doesn't feed its animals? Later that day, I was driving around this property with Miguel, and I asked him, I said, "For a place that seems so natural, unlike any fish f- unlike any farm I'd ever been at, how do you measure success?" Well, at that moment, it's as if a film director called for a set change, and we rounded the corner and saw the most amazing sight, thousands and thousands of pink flamingos.

A literal pink carpet for as far as you could see.

"That's success," he said.

Only on Uber Eats for a limited time.

Just on the performance first, how far did Constitution River go to backing this up on Saturday?

Yeah, I mean, at the moment, he's not the best horse, Ryan's ridden.

In terms of ratings, anyway, we'll touch upon that in more depth shortly.

But that's not to say he won't prove to be.

Indeed, he may be, even if the ratings at the moment don't support it.

But his 1.28 figure, which puts him clear second amongst the three-year-olds behind Boeco, is the highest for winning an Eclipse for Aiden since St. Mark's Basilica won the race in 2021, which began...

This remarkable domination, Aidan's basically doubled his haul in winning the Eclipse in the last six years, after many years previously.

And so in terms of how you rated the race as a whole, do you think he beat some decent horses in behind?

Massive game Tuesday night against Gold Coast Knights where you potentially could go top of the league.

It is a huge week for us, as you're well aware.

We've got Tuesday against night, so then we've got to ease ourselves here.

So we'll deal with Tuesday first.

It's going to be an extremely tough game.

I know they've strengthened as well in the transfer window.

I think the pitch is obviously a little bit indifferent down there at the minute, so we'll obviously have to take that into consideration.

How are you going about with this squad, about balancing all the different priorities as far as all those games go?

And I think he might have done it with a good filly on Sunday in Alpha, a daughter of Alpha Centauri, that multiple group one winner for Jessica Harrington.

Yeah, and the very famous silks as well, of course.

And for an insight into how much she improved from her debut, she ran against a horse called I Believe I Can Fly, stable mate, first time up, and was a neck and a length and a quarter ahead of that horse.

The improvement was so vast that she passed the line six lengths clear of that horse at the Curragh.

And the role of honour for that maiden, that filly's maiden, is pretty remarkable.

That doesn't even just...

I know the role of honour refers to winners only, but this is a race that...

And finally, a horse called Red Happy, who has got a completely bonkers career.

I, I just wondered whether Time Form had been able to put any meat on the bones of the, of the draw chat.

Yeah, obviously because the draw was such a talking point, it felt prudent to try and see if the, the data backed up the, the chat, and I think it's fair to say it does.

We looked at all Royal Ascot handicaps run on the straight course during, uh, the week, and, yeah, the, the numbers are fairly striking as to the apparent bias because we'll do this by not just winners as it is.

Six winners of the seven races were handicaps run on the straight track.

Six of them were drawn in stalls that we describe as high, and the other one was drawn in the middle.

Percentage of rivals beaten squared for all low drawn horses from the 64 runners was only 20.32%.

Contrast that with if you were drawn high, uh, where those six winners came from, percentage of rivals beaten was 52.77 from the 64 runners drawn high.

But from a handicapping perspective, from a Time Form handicapping perspective, how high do you think this horse can fly if one had to offer a mark of 100?

How's, how's it feel?

Delighted.

Delighted for the playing group and for the squad and the club.

Obviously, a, a rich tradition in national competition.

So really pleased and deserving that they've got through the, the four kind of, uh, knockout rounds that we've had to date.

And, and obviously it's something for, for the boys and, and for the whole club to look forward to.

So yeah, looking forward to the draw on Monday week.

Uh, what, what are you looking for in the draw next Monday night, home or away?

His name was Salal, and I wanna get Dan Barber's perspective on him, because I thought to myself after the race, Dan, "Could this horse be a Group One horse?"

He surely can.

And I know it doesn't always translate, um, massive performances in handicaps then into pattern company.

But suffice to say that he's the joint fifth highest performer in a handicap this century on Timeform ratings.

He ran to 124, that puts him level with Aldari.

It puts him a pound behind Houfit from a Steward's Cup win in 2011, and, uh, it puts him only four pounds behind the leader in the division who may never be shifted unless some campaigner becomes a bit bolder, that being the great Troucean, who ran to 128 and winning the Northumberland Plate in 2022.

Something of a quiz question.

So I'd imagine that's where he will end up

Uh, Christmas Day, anything to write home about, Dan?

Uh, not really.

That seems a bit churlish, and obviously there's the, there is the caveat, isn't it? Testing ground leads to, uh, exaggerated distances and the potential for horses to be overrated.

So w- we've exercised some caution.

123P is the rating of Christmas Day.

Strong stayer at the trip.

That puts him on a par with stablemates Wings of Eagles, Anthony Van Dyke, Serpentine amongst the trainer's winners in the last 10 years or so, and I don't think you or I or anyone would have viewed those three as stellar Derby winners.

Who knows? It might well be that the Irish Derby opens up quite nicely for Christmas Day anyway.

You needed this shtard to come clear, didn't you?

We did, yeah.

Well, um...

I'm not sure warmth was required at all, given the heatwave we're amidst.

I mean, I know you like to give the TW11 update.

OL6, the mercury is well above 30 at the moment.

Absolutely brutal stuff.

Give that some context for me.