THE best time honour on the straight track on Tuesday went to Oxted (120) who bounced back to form dropped to the minimum trip and, in doing so, paid a huge compliment to his York conqueror Starman who heads to the Diamond Jubilee Stakes today.

The early pace took half of the field out of their comfort zone by halfway and, to an extent, that included the winner and the runner-up who had more behind than in front passing the two-furlong marker.

However, any impression that the pace had collapsed is contradicted by the sectionals as Oxted closed off in 34.52 seconds, almost a full second faster than the other two races on the straight track.

Roger Teal’s gelding has yet to finish outside of the first two on ground without soft in the description and is now two-out-of-two over five furlongs.

Aricebo (116) showed that Robert Cowell has indeed worked out how to extract the best from him as he finished off in an identical time to the winner and may yet prove up to winning the pattern race that his talent deserves.

Of the other races on the round track, Juan Elcano (112) emerges with credit as his closing sectional compared well to Poetic Flare and from the same race Euchen Glen (110) showed that his defeat of Sangarius was no fluke as he finished off in a respectable 36.82 seconds from the rear of the field having been drawn badly.

He remains in great heart and would prefer more cut in the ground.

The best of the long-distance races was the Ascot Stakes won by 66/1 chance Reshoun (97) who was improving on his effort in the Chester Cup.

As it paid to be handy the performances of both M C Muldoon (97) and Cape Gentleman (93) are worthy of upgrading.