ONE reason we can be confident that Eminent and, in particular, Barney Roy ran fast in the Craven and the Greenham was how their times compared to others at the same tracks on the same days or after adjustment has been made for slightly different conditions on different days.

Eminent was comfortably fastest in relative terms of all winners on a day which included the very smart sprinter Brando in the Abernant Stakes (109 timefigure), and he was faster in relative terms than both Whitecliffsofdover in the European Free Handicap (100 timefigure) and Daban in the Nell Gwyn Stakes (98 timefigure) at seven furlongs the day before.

Neither of those last-two-named races was as well-run as the Craven, however, and Daban showed a smart turn of foot to win the Nell Gwyn to suggest that she can rate higher still. Her last three furlongs came in about 35.0s, compared to Whitecliffsofdover’s 35.85s and Eminent’s 35.3s.

Daban had run nearly as quickly late on (35.2s) when winning at Kempton on her only previous start and clearly has plenty of toe. It is possible her best chance in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket will be if that race turns into a tactical affair and a sprint at the end. In timefigure terms, she still has some way to go to get to the level shown last year by Fair Eva (112) and Rhododendron (110), however.

That last comment also applies to her stable-companion Dabyah, who won the Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury in a time 1.46s (around 9 lengths) slower than Barney Roy shortly after, and who ran the last half-mile in 46.55s compared to that colt’s much more impressive 45.6s.

Dabyah gets a timefigure of just 92 for this effort, with those sectionals suggesting her nearest pursuers might have run her closer kept more in touch, though she did run an estimated 107 timefigure when third to the recently injured Wuheida in last year’s Prix Marcel Boussac at Chantilly.

Dabyah seems likely to head back to France for the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, which will be run at Deauville again this year, but I would not say that she significantly advanced her claims for that race with her short-priced success in this one.