THE opening day of Royal Ascot 2020 was covered in last week’s Time Will Tell, and the only update I have from it is that I have decided to rate Battaash’s King’s Stand win 126 rather than 129 as it became clearer that the five-furlong times were generally a bit quicker than other straight-course times at longer distances.

Smart performance

That all said, it is also difficult to escape the conclusion that Russian Emperor put up a decidedly smart performance in winning a pretty strong Hampton Court, looking very much a Derby candidate in getting up late to beat the promising First Receiver and to record a 114 sectional figure.

That is 6lb behind the 2000 Guineas winner Kameko, about whom there are significant stamina doubts, but only 1lb behind Military March and level with the Derby favourite English King.

Russian Emperor is not flashy, but he does shape as if 12 furlongs will suit him very well: I have added him to my bets.

The running of the Royal Hunt Cup and the consolation version of the race on the same Wednesday card made for some meaningful direct comparisons.

Both were well-run, with the winners – Dark Vision and Sir Busker respectively – returning finishing speeds of 99.1% and 101.3%, both close to par.

Dark Vision was 1.22s quicker but carried less weight and comes out at 108 (listed standard but not quite Group 3 standard, in Britain and Ireland anyway) while Sir Busker is on 103.

The other two handicaps on Wednesday promise to produce plenty of winners, especially the King George V Stakes for three-year-olds, won by the very likeable Hukum (94 sectional rating). This was an especially tactical affair, however, and he covered the last three furlongs slower than six of his rivals, notably runner-up Kipps (89) and sixth-placed Bodyline (88).

Fujaira Prince took the concluding 14-furlong Copper Horse Handicap despite a year-long absence, returning a 107 sectional rating which puts him in the same sort of territory as Dark Vision in terms of future engagements, though in a different distance band.

The prime candidate – the Prince of Wales’s Stakes – was run in a manner that made a fast overall time highly unlikely.

Lord North surged through from the back to win in clear-cut fashion but recorded a time that was only 0.23s faster than had been achieved by the year-younger Russian Emperor in the Hampton Court Stakes earlier, most of that in the final three furlongs.

The balance of Lord North’s form, which includes a defeat of Elarqam as well as this more emphatic victory over Addeybb, Barney Roy and Japan, entitles him to be rated 122, but it may pay to treat this form with a degree of caution until proved otherwise: it is possible that none of the horses Lord North beat was on their “A” game here.