EASILY best overall time performance at the Curragh, and just about the best in Britain and Ireland of the week, came from the old-stager Gordon Lord Byron in landing the listed sprint last Saturday at the Curragh with a timefigure of 117, only a few pounds below the best figures short of a mile of the campaign so far.

A strong pace saw the seven-year-old run 2.6s faster than the promising juvenile Final Frontier had in winning a maiden on his debut 35 minutes earlier, but, tellingly, it was the younger horse who ran fractionally quicker from halfway.