FRIDAY at York was a day for tactical races more than fast times, with the notable exception of the Nunthorpe.

You did not need sectionals to see that Quest For More got the run of the Lonsdale Cup under a very canny ride from George Baker, though they do underline that the winner was clearing away again by the line, having briefly looked like being overhauled. Quest For More’s timefigure was just 93 - his lifetime best is 116.

Saturday was different, especially where the Gimcrack Stakes was concerned. Helped by a tailwind, admittedly, Blue Point missed the juvenile track record, set by Tiggy Wiggy in the 2014 Lowther, by just 0.10s, and would almost certainly have easily lowered that in a race run at a truer pace.

The second half of the Gimcrack was quite a bit faster than the first half, and Blue Point’s final furlong of 11.40s was the fastest - by any horse, of any age and at any trip - of the whole meeting.

Despite that steady-fast profile, Blue Point ran a 118 timefigure that takes him to the top of the juvenile males in Britain and Ireland.

The one thing Blue Point did show here was prodigious speed, and it is to be doubted that he will benefit from further at this stage. A clash between him and Caravaggio at six furlongs would be something to behold. On the clock, it is now advantage to the Godolphin colt, though some might disagree!

To underline the speed of conditions by the end of the York meeting, Big Time Baby broke the 5f two-year-old track record by 0.22s in the listed race and was less than a second outside Dayjur’s all-age best, a performance worth a timefigure of 102.

The Ebor Handicap provided a memorable success for trainer Tony Martin, whose first and third - Heartbreak City and Quick Jack - were split, appropriately enough perhaps, by a horse called Shrewd.

The Ebor was run in a slightly faster time than the earlier Melrose Handicap for three-year-olds but the assumed immaturity of that winner, Wall Of Fire, means that that one gets a higher timefigure, of 107 compared to 103. Both races were run over 32 yards short of what had been advertised.