IF the York race management were satisfied by the outcome of their four-day Ebor Festival, looking forward, HRI should also be very pleased by the way things worked out ahead of the big Irish weekend next month.

Both the Juddmonte International 1-2 seem ‘definite possibles’ and, with the sprint division lacking any clarity as to who should be on top, the Flying Five should attract a quality field and possibly be the race that decides who is top dog in the sprint division. (Or should I say top bitch, with so many fillies and mares involved!?).

Pacemakers have been the talk of the town on the flat this summer.

Both Qirat and Birr Castle were engaged to perform that duty in the Sussex Stakes and International and, despite being pacemakers, with fancied runners in the fields not reacting in time, they ran much better than anyone expected in Group 1 races.

Godolphin’s pacemaker Birr Castle wasn’t ridden to achieve the best possible placing in the Juddmonte, yet achieved a career best.

He exceeded all expectations while simply ensuring a true-run race for Ombudsman.

Aidan O’Brien said after York about Delacroix: “You learn more by losing than by winning. We’ll go to Leopardstown and hopefully that won’t happen again, this horse doesn’t mind making the running.” This nicely tees up the Irish Champions Stakes. Ombudsman needs decent ground, so you would hope John Gosden takes the plunge rather than wait for Ascot in October.

The race has history in how to deploy a pacemaker, going back to Fantastic Light famously getting one over on Galileo.

Delacroix has impressed by racing prominently at the Dublin track. You imagine that tactic may be used, sit close to a pacemaker and kick on earlier, since he was found a bit flat-footed initially at Sandown and York.

And then suppose Ballydoyle decide to run Los Angeles, who ran very well in the race last year. He could go out front and not compromise his own chances and be the high-class pacemaker to trump all pacemakers.

What will Godolphin do, is the question? Compared to York, there’s not a lot of room for two pacemakers coming back to the field off the final bend at Leopardstown.

Remember Falbrav being caught on the rail? Remember Australia being pushed four wide on the final bend?

The Royal Bahrain Irish Champions Stakes could be the most intriguing battle of the season.

“How moved I was watching this little horse battle triumphantly up the Cheltenham Hill.

And surely the ability to excite the spectator is the ultimate test of the great horse.”

IT was a line written by Bough Scott back in the day in the foreword to a book on Monksfield by Jonathan Powell.

American sports are probably more prone to hyperbole but it is gratifying, after a year or two under the cosh, when a streak of bad luck seemed to intervene at the tracks, to see the excitement that a really good horse like Sovereignty is bringing to racing stateside. How good is he? Some of the top analysts used the Travers figures to make a good case that he is outstanding.

The Godolphin three-year-old colt won his third Grade 1 of the season in the Travers last week, gaining all the plaudits for the manner and quality of his performance.

In the hands of a trainer like Bill Mott, there is a touch of the Henry Cecil/Frankel campaign in his targets this season, never being overfaced and now put away until November, similar to Frankel’s absence from Goodwood in July to British Champions’ day in October.

Is Sovereignty the best middle-distance horse in the world? Or how does he fit among the best three-year-olds of recent times in the US, a list that contains many great and popular horses.

The top three-year-olds of the last 30 years or so, were Holy Bull (6 wins/7 starts), Point Given (8 wins/11 starts), American Pharoah (9 wins/11 starts), Justify (6 from 6), Arrogate (7 from 11, and unbeaten as a three-year-old).

The top US older horses were Cigar, Zenyatta and Flightine, the last-named probably the most exciting, for all that we saw him so few times.

The hardest race to win is probably the Kentucky Derby, and Holy Bull and Point Given missed out there, Justify took the Triple Crown but was gone by June and had a lot still to prove, while Arrogate missed all the classics. It leaves the other Triple Crown winner American Pharoah as the horse to be measured against in any comparison of greatness.

The good thing is that Sovereignty may well race on at four. There’s a lot to be excited about.

IF you watched the head-on reply of the Virgin Bet Prestige Fillies’ Stakes from Goodwood, you would have little doubt in deciding who looked the more accomplished jockey in riding his horse in a tight finish. But you could feel we are back to the old times where Irish riders going to Britain must beware of the different and much stricter rules, or take the punishments.

Alphonse Le Grande ‘lost’ the Cesarewitch, though he got it back, due to Jamie Powell going one over with the whip. Colin Keane was similarily caught out at Sandown ‘going over’ and lost many rides at Goodwood and now Wayne Lordan finds himself suspended for 10 days, missing Irish Champions Weekend for ‘three instances of using his whip in the incorrect place’ aboard Prestige Stakes winner Precise last Sunday.

There’s not a punter in either land who would not think that is very severe.

Danny Tudhope got a three-day suspension for using his whip in the incorrect place on Galtres Stakes scorer Charlotte’s Web and I can’t really see why the ‘offence’ of using the whip in the wrong place should be so increased if the rider used it a few times more. It certainly didn’t look very severe on Precise. Lordan was also required to use his whip in the Derby and Oaks finishes and appeared to use the same whip style.