WHEN Dubai Mile won for the second time in late August, he was the 5,000th winner saddled by Mark Johnston, though nowadays with his son Charlie on the licence. The two-year-old came out the following month, was narrowly beaten in a four-runner Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes, but the third that day, Flying Honours, has since won the Group 3 Zetland Stakes.

Now Mark Johnston knows a thing or two about the Zetland Stakes, and he last won it with the subsequent multiple Group 1 winner Hartnell, one of a number of high-class colts he trained to land the contest. Perhaps this year’s result gave him the confidence to fly high with Dubai Mile, and the colt duly obliged when he beat a smart field to capture the weekend’s 10-furlong Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud.