“YOU make your own luck” is something of a truism where horseracing is concerned but the fact is that good jockeys have a habit of ensuring fortune is on their side while good horses are capable of capitalising on that.

Ryan Moore and Roly Poly had left nothing to chance when making all in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket’s July Meeting and repeated the feat in Sunday’s Prix Rothschild at Deauville. While the pair probably would have won regardless on the first occasion, the tactics very likely made the difference between victory and defeat on the second.

The overall time of the Rothschild was not fast, though there are only two other turf races on the card with which to compare it, and the on-screen sectionals show that Roly Poly was not having to exert herself especially up front. The first 1,000m went by in 62.12s when about 1.0s faster than that might have been expected given the overall time.

Plenty of French races are run more slowly than that, but when margins are as narrow as here – a short nose back to Via Ravenna, a further short-head to Siyoushake and a further short nose to Qemah – positioning can count for enough when the pace has been steady.

SECTIONAL TIMES

I make Roly Poly’s timefigure worth 108 (she had run 114 when second in the Lowther at two years and the Coronation this June), and both Via Ravenna and, especially, Qemah were comfortably better than her in sectional terms.

Qemah made up about five lengths in the final 400m, after travelling well then having to be switched, and almost certainly retains all the ability which won her the Coronation and this race last summer: expect her to be back in the winner’s enclosure before long.

It is also inadvisable to take the result of the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Sunday entirely at face value. The pace was good rather than suicidal but the result was that the winner Girvin and second McCraken came from a long way back as others wilted.

Third-placed Practical Joke was beaten less than a length despite racing closer up than the pair who beat him and could still prove best of these. I make the winning time effort worth about 114 on an Irish and British scale.