Watch out supergirls - the boy's back in town, and he's pure quality

THERE was an astonishing performance over the weekend, one of the best in recent seasons according to at least one scale of reference.

And I am not talking about Dunguib.

The US-trained four-year-old Quality Road posted a blistering record-breaking display in the prestigious Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.

Put simply, he absolutely thumped his Grade 1 rivals in the best race of the year so far in the States.

Okay, this may not have been the best field of older horses ever assembled but Quality Road slammed them out of sight, conceding weight all round before not even being extended beating Dry Martini by nearly 13 lengths.

Admittedly, everything was in the winner's favour - his only previous Grade 1 win had come over course and distance in last year's Florida Derby, and he had won well on his seasonal debut in January. He also benefited from the perfect trip.

Yet if  dirt racing lends itself to extended winning margins, you cannot really ask for a whole lot more than breaking the track record and scoring by a record margin.

Owing to the confines of space pre-Cheltenham, only a truncated version of my Donn report was hidden away in Monday's Racing Post - the full monty with some reaction is elsewhere on this site.

However, you don't have to take my word for it. While the race wasn't broadcast live in Britain, click on the link elsewhere on this page and it should be available on youtube.

To put this display into context, just look at what Quality Road achieved according to the celebrated Beyer speed figures, the calibrations that are sometimes accorded scriptural status in Stateside racing circles.

The Beyer system, created by journalist Andy Beyer in the 1970s, produces time figures for every horse running in every race in North America that subsequently appear in a horse's past-performance sheet in the Daily Racing Form.

Put together, they offer a sort of ranking of performances against the clock, adjusted for track bias and the relative speed of the circuit on the day in question.

The Beyer team gave Quality Road a mark of 121 at Gulfstream. If he were to repeat that sort of figure, then he would stand a fine chance of beating both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, neither of whom have ever reached the 120-mark.

Rachel Alexandra's top Beyer was her 116 in last year's Haskell - the top figure of the year - while Zenyatta hit 112 in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Okay, such a comparison is slightly facile - especially where Zenyatta is concerned, as not only does her come-from-behind running style preclude spectacular speed figures, she has raced exclusively on synthetic surface for nearly two years.

As everybody knows by now, synthetic tracks resemble turf more than dirt - and they don't produce the same level of speed figures. With a nod to the Verve, the Beyers don't work.

Be that as it may, it should not detract from the merit of Quality Road's performance at Gulfstream.

His Beyer of 121 is the highest awarded since Midnight Lute won the Forego over 7f in 2007, and the best over a mile or more since Commentator sped home in a 120 from Saint Liam in a memorable Whitney at Saratoga in 2005.

By the way, Beyer reckons Secretariat's 31-length Belmont romp would have been the highest in history - he estimates a 139.

Any mark above 120 may be regarded as the mark of a champion on the clock - indeed, the explanatory cribsheet on the Daily Racing Form's website suggests 115+ represents the best horses in the country. The great Cigar never beat 121, and more usually hit numbers in the 117 region.

Whatever happens now, it might be asking a lot to expect Quality Road ever to reproduce that number as he got a perfect run at Gulfstream, where he is perfectly suited by the fast dirt track.

Then again, he doesn't have many miles on the clock, and he might conceivably be capable of more if trainer Todd Pletcher gets a clear run.

Either way, this is one talented horse. Even the conventional ‘pounds-shilling and lengths' form of European handicapping suggests this was a hell of a display.

The Racing Post Ratings team gave Quality Road a mark of 128 - 12lb higher than the next best achieved anywhere this year (Gloria De Campeao in Dubai) and 14lb above Gabby's Golden Gal, currently second in the US rankings on RPRs.

For good measure, it was identical to the rating given Zenyatta in the Breeders' Cup Classic and just a pound below Rachel Alexandra's best. (Don't forget, both those females would get a sex allowance if they met Quality Road - Beyers don't consider such weighty issues.)

On this evidence, a potentially vintage season in the States has just gained a significant new shooter at the very top level.

It is entirely possible that Quality Road's performance will not be matched anywhere in the States in 2010.