Autumn Glow better than Winx as Doncaster dream diminishes

The Doncaster will have a new topweight in Ceolwulf when weights are released on Tuesday, while favourite Autumn Glow will be asked to carry an extra two kilograms after being rated better than Winx.

When Doncaster nominations were closed, Gringotts was the highest rated horse on 121 and would have been the topweight. It was a rating still shown on the Racing NSW website for the Doncaster on Monday.

However, he dropped to a 118 indicative rating when entered for Saturday’s Liverpool City Cup. A three-point drop that is rarely seen, because of a four-length defeat in The Ingham in December.

Meanwhile, it had taken Racing NSW handicappers more than a week to give the benchmark for the unbeaten Autumn Glow from the Apollo Stakes.

It was also a 118 indicative rating, which makes her rating a kilogram better than Winx at the same point of their careers as four-year-olds.

Even though Winx had won three Group 1 races to one, including a Cox Plate.

The adjustments on Monday made a mockery of the benchmark system, which is supposed to be transparent.

It also ended hopes of Autumn Glow running in the Doncaster Mile as champion mares More Joyous and Sunline were beaten as four-year-olds with 57 and 57.5 kilograms respectively.

Winx famously won the Doncaster with 56.5kg 10 years ago.

The knock-on effect for the Doncaster pulls the scale up a kilogram from the changes. It means Ceolwulf on 119 benchmark will be the Doncaster topweight, even though he is unlikely to be there, when Ben Dunn releases the weights tomorrow.

Ceolwulf was given 57.5kg last year at Doncaster off a mark of 115; on the same scale, he would have 59.5kg this year.

That would have Gringotts, on his new rating, at 59kg, and Autumn Glow at 57kg, at her rating of 118.

Trainers complain that it’s hard to drop a point in the benchmark system, so losing three points is unheard of, but it was a case of the handicapper springing Gringotts through the grades late last year.

George Ryder Stakes winner Gringotts won the Big Dance and The Gong in the spring before finishing midfield as one of the favourite in the Ingham.

He was given 118 indicative rating after the Big Dance, and then 121 rating after The Gong. He was returned to 118 indicative rating from The Ingham, which was two months ago, after Doncaster entries closed.

Neither the Big Dance or The Gong is recognised internationally as a Black Type race as new races to the program created by Racing NSW in the past couple of years.

Ceolwulf won the weight-for-age Group 1 races King Charles Stakes and Champions Mile in the spring.

He went up four points for the King Charles and only two points to 119 after holding off Pericles in the Champions Mile at Flemington.

The 119 rating matches his international rating, which is remarkably low for a four-time Group 1 winner.

Ceolwulf was effectively rated a kilogram inferior to Gringotts on the Racing NSW benchmark system, which was amazing and simply wrong.

Pericles, the form horse of Australian racing, won the Futurity on Saturday and quickly given an indicative rating of 115 out of that race on the Racing NSW website.

He would have 57.5kg in the Doncaster, which means he would have met Autumn Glow 1-1/2 kilograms better for being beaten 1-1/2 length in the Epsom.

Racing NSW handicapper Ben Dunn has been contacted for comment but told Betsy to wait until tomorrow to see the weights.