IN the shadows of the York Ebor Festival, we saw Jonquil’s fire reigniting in the Group 2 Celebration Mile Stakes at Goodwood on Sunday, writes Page Fuller. He promised in the spring to be an exciting prospect for connections, but failed to follow through after his Group 3 win on his seasonal reappearance, and a head defeat in a Longchamp Group 1 next time.

The latter race was over a mile, and the step back up to a mile on Sunday looked like the key to his bounce back to form. He’s not short of speed, which he demonstrated when clocking the only Top Speed quicker than 42mph in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. However, he needs to be able to use the speed in the right part of the race, putting it to use in the closing stages.

In both of his defeats in Britain this season, he’s clocked fastest furlongs quicker than 11 seconds, whereas in his two victories, he never broke that threshold. He also clocked Finishing Speed Percentages of around 104% in both races he won, compared to his two defeats, where he failed to maintain the early speed, finishing with sub 100% FSPs on both occasions.

This tells us that, tactically, he needs to be able to quicken in the closing stages in races which have less emphasis on early speed. It backs up why the step back up in trip suited him so well, and considering how strongly he hit the line, he could be a versatile addition to the mile and middle distance division.