ONE reason that Marenko’s and Tasleet’s trial wins resulted in slow times is that the surface at Chelmsford City has become slower of late than usual.

Another is that there is a horse on the card who ran remarkably quickly, which puts a lid on what they can be considered to have achieved on the clock.

That horse is Taqdeer, who landed the opening mile maiden in a time faster than that recorded by the older horse Gabrial’s Kaka in winning the Spring Cup carrying 9lb less and who is even being spoken of as a realistic outsider for the Guineas himself.

Compared simplistically to other times on the card, Taqdeer is a group horse already, and a good group horse at that, though that would mean that Mustashry and Poet’s Word, who chased him home, were group or listed quality, too.

Sometimes a time looks a bit too good to be true, and this is one of them. Timeform’s timefigure for Taqdeer is 99, which is useful if conservative.

Nonetheless, that makes Mustashry (94 timefigure) and Poet’s Word (88) seem bankers for ordinary maidens.

It may prove a shrewder move to side with those two horses to confirm that they are above average than to assume that Taqdeer is the second coming. Time will tell!