Timeform rate Toronado top for Juddmonte International

Toronado beating Dawn Approach in their Duel on the Downs Clash at Glorious Goodwood. Image copyright of Racingfotos.com

QIPCO Sussex Stakes winner Toronado has been given a greater weight-adjusted Timeform rating to two-time Champions Series star Al Kazeem ahead of their clash in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York.

The Richard Hannon-trained three-year-old is the top-rated contender in the 1m2f contest, 4 lbs higher than his adversary Al Kazeem, despite not having raced beyond a mile.

Al Kazeem, who is bidding to become the first horse since Frankel to win three Champion Series races during a campaign, has won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown this season.

Timeform Flat Handicapper, Pat Jupp, believes that the match-up will be a very close affair.

He commented: “Al Kazeem has come of age this year and there’s little doubt that he’s a rock-solid top-level performer at a mile and a quarter.

“Toronado is the highest-rated horse in training in Europe, but it’s over a mile that he’s proven himself and there are doubts as to whether he will be able to run up to that level over this longer trip, his stamina by no means is assured judged on pedigree and run style.”

Jim Bolger’s Trading Leather, Sir Michael Stoute’s Hillstar and Aidan O’Brien’s Declaration of War are the outside contenders, along with the 150-1 shot Rewarded.

Juddmonte International (all ratings weight-adjusted)

142       TORONADO

138       AL KAZEEM

135       DECLARATION OF WAR

131       TRADING LEATHER

130       HILLSTAR

122       REWARDED