Majborough highest-rated chaser this century to be labelled a ‘poor jumper’ by Timeform
Majborough has been given the 'x' symbol by Timeform to mark him out as a poor jumper. With a rating of 177, he is the highest-rated chaser this century to also have an 'x'.
Majborough was sent off the 5/6 favourite for the Champion Chase on the back of an outstanding performance at the Dublin Racing Festival but, just as had been the case in the Arkle last season, he was let down by his jumping at Cheltenham. He made mistakes at the eighth and ninth fences and already looked in trouble when blundering badly at the third last.
Reflecting on that error-strewn display, Timeform's jumps editor Dan Barber said: "The importance of jumping at Cheltenham has been underlined again. That’s two years running when Majborough has gone from looking imperious to almost on the floor and that’s led us to give his rating an x, which denotes the fences, especially here, do seem a big issue for him.
"Maybe you could question the rating coming into this, and he didn’t live up to it, but we still feel he put up a monster performance at the DRF even if he wasn’t able to repeat it today.
“But if he went back to the DRF in 10 months’ time and the ground was testing again he’d be way closer to that peak and may even reproduce it. But horses are conditional, ratings are conditional and this is one instance where a horse isn’t effective on one track but pretty devastating under a different set of circumstances elsewhere."
Constitution Hill, who is now set to continue his career on the Flat, also has the Timeform 'x' symbol attached to his hurdles rating of 166 after falling on three of his last four starts over jumps.
Il Etait Temps capitalised on Majborough’s blow-out in the Champion Chase and didn’t need to improve on the form he had shown when an impressive winner of the Tingle Creek. He is rated 174.
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Timeform's highest-rated chasers with an 'x'
177x Majborough
174x Beef Or Salmon
171 Ahoy Senor
171x El Fabiolo
