USING a similar model to British Champions Day, the Friday of the Breeders’ Cup meeting – this year held in Churchill Downs, Kentucky – is for the stars of the future and we certainly saw one in the shape of Newspaperofrecord.

Showing good gate speed to make all at a good gallop (hand-clocked final two-furlong finished speed of 98%), she travelled well and showed a willing attitude to catapult clear by six and three-quarter lengths.

A big, strong filly, she seemed to be doing her best work toward the finish, something the comparative times capture quite well. She reached the two-furlong pole in a very similar time to the boys Juvenile Turf race (won by Line Of Duty) but was over a second faster from that point to the line.

Timeform now rate her 122p, the highest of any two-year-old filly this season, and she’s clearly a hugely exciting prospect going forward. To temper one’s enthusiasm slightly, your concern would be how much, if at all, she can progress beyond her current level.

American trainers seem to be able to produce extremely forward, well-developed two-year-old fillies like nobody else and they’ve tended to be at their best when they have that edge of over more slow-developing types.

Another two-year-old to note briefly, Bulletin showed fabulous gate-speed to make all in the Juvenile Sprint over five and a half furlongs. The pace was fast (95.8% finishing speed), he didn’t travel particularly well, but showed tremendous heart to fight everything off and extend away at the line. Timeform go 115p, and he was comfortably the best horse in that race.

Khalid Abdullah was the star on Saturday, at least for those of us primarily interested in turf racing, with victories for Expert Eye (Breeders’ Cup Mile) and Enable (Breeders’ Cup Turf).

The pace in the Breeders’ Cup Mile was altogether more ordinary than in the Juvenile equivalents (100.6% finishing speed, and over a second slower to the two-furlong point).

Your instinct visually may have been that the pace collapsed, and Expert Eye was ideally placed to capitalise, but that’s not borne out by the pace which suggests that, if anything, Expert Eye must be upgraded for that effort. That said, Timeform didn’t believe he had to improve to win that: they retain a rating of 122.

One horse who should be upgraded is Aidan O’Brien’s filly Clemmie who equalled her three-year-old best running to 113 but was finishing stronger than anything having had a nightmare trip out the back.

OUTSTANDING

There’s nothing I can really say which hasn’t been said about Enable. She’s the outstanding filly of her generation, and one of the outstanding fillies of any generation.

She, again, likely didn’t quite reach the heights of her three-year-old days, but it didn’t really matter. Coming clear of the field with Aidan O’Brien’s filly Magical, they fought out a tremendous battle and, to me at least, it seemed inevitable that she was going to get on top toward the line.

She has everything: travelling speed, tactical speed and strength at the finish. The gallop was strong (97.6% finishing speed) which manifested in the cream rising to the top but also the need for staying power late on the piste.

It’s no shame at all that Magical, a three-year-old, was out-pointed by the more-developed Enable and, with hints from both trainers that they are likely to remain in training, the future of middle-distance trips could well be female.