WEATHER conditions throughout the week at York made time analysis more than a little tricky, with occasional rain and more frequently strong and gusting wind.

York Racecourse deserves credit for linking to detailed and dynamic weather-station readings, if less so for altering the distance of some races well after declaration time.

Judged on times, the ground only clearly became good to soft (and not soft) halfway through Saturday’s card: it was on the easy side of good at worst prior to that.

I have revised my initial assessment of Thursday’s Group 2 Lowther Stakes from 110 to 114 for Miss Amulet, with the form of the Queen Mary, in which Lowther runner-up Sacred (110) had also been second, upheld elsewhere.

The Lowther was 0.74s faster than the sales race which followed, in which Happy Romance returned a 97 time rating (both winning performances close to peak efficiency).

Miss Amulet was also 0.50s quicker than was Minzaal in winning the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes 24 hours later, though rain had slowed the surface slightly in between.

Minzaal was impressive, especially mid-race, but a 111 time rating in an efficiently-paced race is testament to the limitations of his rivals as well as to his own smart ability.

A similar remark applies to Enbihaar, winner of the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup, also on Friday, with a 109-rated performance. She keeps winning, and is clearly made of the right stuff, but a fairly narrow defeat of Stratum (112) suggests some of her other rivals underperformed.

Likewise, the group wins on Saturday at York of Certain Lad in the Group 3 Strensall Stakes (112 rating) and of Safe Voyage in a falsely run Group 2 City of York Stakes (116, including a sectional upgrade) were meritorious but owed something to disappointing runs from significant rivals.

Acklam Express’s victory in the Listed Roses Stakes later on Saturday was more straightforward but certainly hard-fought, with less than half a length covering the first four. He gets a figure of 99 and is a useful juvenile sprinter but possibly not better.

York is also about big handicaps, of course, with none bigger than the Sky Bet Ebor. That went to the favourite Fujaira Prince, but in a time 1.45s slower than recorded by the Melrose winner Coltrane a bit earlier.

That is down in part to Fujaira Prince carrying 14lb more, and the ground probably slowing somewhat, but also to the Melrose being run at a far more honest pace.

One to note

After all is said and done, I have sectional figures of 113 on Fujaira Prince – a Group 3 or even Group 2 horse in the making – and 100 on Coltrane. Fourth-placed Monica Sheriff (103 and by no means exposed) looks the one to take from the former contest.

The best performance in a handicap of the week, and possibly of the year, came however in the valuable mile race on Thursday, and not from the winner Montatham – good though his 111-rated performance was – but from top-weighted runner-up Sir Busker (116), who did well to run about 34.6s for the final three furlongs.

York was also the scene of one of the best two-year-old maiden performance of the year so far (though there have been a fair few other contenders in Britain and Ireland of late) in the shape of Naval Crown in the Convivial Maiden on Friday.

He won by four and a half lengths, and gets a punchy sectional figure of 102, but the next three home should not be long in winning, either.