Friday's national speed-figure leaderboard belonged to a pair of familiar connections, as Cornwall Boss exploded at Delaware Park and veteran sprinter Nakatomi turned in another trademark late run to repeat in the Phoenix Stakes and lock up a Breeders' Cup Sprint berth at Keeneland.
Cornwall Boss delivered the kind of breakout effort that makes a lightly raced 3-year-old instantly relevant, crushing a six-furlong maiden special weight at Delaware Park by 8 3/4 lengths and earning a 149 Horse Racing Nation speed figure, the highest number recorded anywhere in the country on the day. According to entries and results published by Delaware Park and Godolphin, the Mike Stidham trainee went off a towering 1-5 in a field of six and sat just off the pace under Jose Batista before drawing away decisively in the lane. It was his third career start and his first outing since a layoff stretching back to November, a profile that often produces rust but in this case produced a massive forward move and a figure that sits near the top of HRN's 1-to-160 scale. For handicappers, that combination of dominance off a long break and a triple-digit-plus number suggests Cornwall Boss is ready for an aggressive jump into allowance or listed-stakes company rather than another spin through the maiden ranks.
The Stidham barn doubled down on the day's breakout theme when Zimmer scored stylishly in a $100,000 maiden special weight over six furlongs on dirt at Belmont Park, earning a 121 HRN speed figure that ranked among Friday's best. International race reports from Belmont list Zimmer as one of 12 runners in the seventh race, with Paco Lopez aboard for Stidham and Godolphin. Sent off as the 7-2 second choice in his debut, Zimmer settled in mid-pack before launching a sustained stretch rally to win by four lengths, a trip that matches the written description in HRN's speed-figure recap and the official chart margin. Godolphin's own race card notes the colt as part of a cross-track double for the operation, with Cornwall Boss also winning at Delaware on the same afternoon, underscoring how their sprint division has come into sharp focus heading into the autumn stakes season.
Farther from the national spotlight but important to the developing sprint picture, Mactak turned a tough Remington Park maiden into a personal showcase, overcoming bumping at the start to take command and power clear by 7 1/2 lengths in a five-furlong dirt dash. The Steve Asmussen trainee was making his fifth career start and went off the 2-1 second choice in a field of 10, according to HRN's figure notes, but ran like an odds-on favorite once he straightened for home. His 113 HRN speed figure may not match Cornwall Boss's towering number, yet for a horse who had knocked on the door several times, punching through with that kind of margin positions him as a prime candidate for starter-allowance or overnight-stakes company on the Oklahoma circuit. Trips where a horse absorbs early trouble and still finishes with authority often prove more predictive going forward than straightforward wire jobs, and Mactak's pattern fits that preferred profile.
The headline black-type performance of the day came in the 174th running of the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes (G2) at Keeneland, where Nakatomi produced another vintage closing kick to win the six-furlong dirt sprint by a length and earn a fees-paid spot in the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Sprint back at the same track. Race coverage from the Daily Racing Form and the Paulick Report describes Nakatomi dropping to last early in an eight-horse field before Irad Ortiz Jr. knifed through on the rail and inside the leaders in the final sixteenth to get up in 1:09.93 over a fast main track. The Phoenix served as opening-day co-feature for Keeneland's fall meet and as a “win and you're in” qualifier for the Sprint, making the victory especially significant for a 7-year-old gelding who has been a fixture in the race. DRF and Keeneland's own stakes previews note that Nakatomi had finished second in the Phoenix in 2023 and 2024 before winning it in 2025, and the latest score gives him back-to-back wins in the race and an eighth victory from 28 lifetime starts. Paulick's recap further points out that the win pushed his earnings past $2.2 million and added another graded sprint to a résumé that already includes the 2024 Alfred G. Vanderbilt and multiple previous appearances in the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
Nakatomi's Phoenix also carried a human-interest angle with handicapping implications: Ortiz was making his first day back in the saddle since suffering seven fractures in his foot in a pre-race incident at Saratoga on Aug. 8, a layoff that had kept the multiple Eclipse Award winner off mounts for weeks. Paulick Report quotes connections noting that trainer Wesley Ward had kept the gelding fresh with his preferred winter-break routine and targeted this race as a key launching pad back into the top level. From a form perspective, that combination of a returning elite rider and a horse proven over the Keeneland strip explains why Nakatomi went off as the 2-1 second choice despite facing a field that included recent Grade 1 winner Hymn, who was tabbed by Keeneland's on-track analyst Ellis Starr as the most likely pace factor. Bettors watching replays will see a horse who can settle, handle kickback, and quicken sharply in the final furlong—traits that translate directly to the chaotic pace scenarios likely in the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
Underpinning all of these performances is the AI-driven HRN speed-figure scale, which runs from 1 to 160 and was introduced in December 2024 with the goal of reducing manual downgrades of unexpectedly strong efforts. HRN's own explanation notes that the expanded range helps avoid assigning zero figures in weak races and allows the algorithm to re-compute historical numbers as models improve. Using the top last-race figure in a given field as a benchmark, HRN reports that horses with that highest figure went on to win 26.2% of the time between 2021 and 2024, compared with 28.1% for Beyer figures and 28.4% for TimeformUS. On Friday's cards, Cornwall Boss's 149 towered over the day, while Nakatomi and claiming winner Congrats On Fifty each posted 126s, with Zimmer at 121 and Mactak at 113 among the next tier of notable runs. Those numbers give handicappers a quantifiable way to stack these efforts against the broader population, but the slight gap in top-figure win rates versus other systems is a reminder that raw speed must still be filtered through trip, pace, and trainer intent.
Looking ahead, the most immediate ramifications land in the sprint divisions at multiple venues. Cornwall Boss and Zimmer, both emerging from the same Stidham–Godolphin axis, figure to show up quickly in allowance or entry-level stakes where their debut speed-figure profiles will draw heavy attention at the windows, and any equipment or distance tweaks will be scrutinized closely for signs of sustained improvement. Mactak's Remington breakout sets him up as a likely local player who could earn a shot in regional stakes if he can reproduce that 113 in non-maiden company, making his next pace scenario and post draw critical handicapping data points. For Nakatomi, the Phoenix repeat confirms that his Keeneland-centric preparation—winter breaks, carefully spaced preps, and a return to his favorite surface and distance—remains intact, and the Breeders' Cup Sprint now runs straight through him as a home-track closer whose numbers and back class demand respect, even if the AI, Beyer, and Timeform lines will all have their say when race day comes.
