Top Ten Performances of the Flat Season 2013

There may have been a rather large Frankel-shaped hole in the 2013 flat season but you can’t live in the past and thankfully new equine stars emerged, stepped up and thrilled with their performances over the past season.

Across the globe we were witness to some incredible displays that will live long in the memory and contributed to another fantastic season of flat racing.

As is now customary, my countdown of the ten performances that stood out most to me over the past season follow and as always my selections are based on a tried and tested method of form, visual impression and most importantly: bias.

The idea of the list if to highlight individual brilliance and horses that single-handedly stole the show so many of the pulsating Toronado-Dawn Approach clashes and a lot of the Breeders’ Cup action doesn’t make it in given that a lot of those races’ magic was down to more than one horse.

1000 Guineas - Big Race Preview

Remember The Name - French raider What A Name can take the 1000 Guineas

The fillies’ equivalent of the Guineas is not as straight forward to get to the bottom of as I personally think the colts’ race is, but that being said I still have a pretty confident selection for this Sunday’s race.

The last couple of 1000 Guineas have thrown up some big priced winners in Blue Bunting and Homecoming Queen, perhaps surprisingly given their connections, and although you’d be a fool to say a surprise won’t happen this year’s race does look at the mercy of the horses towards the head of the betting.

The French have taken two of the last five runnings of the 1000 Guineas with Natagora winning in 2008 and Special Duty being awarded the race in 2010 and I think they can make it a 50% strike rate in the last six years in 2013 with the Mikel Delzangles-trained What A Name.