The bare time of his win merits exactly the same rating I’ve awarded him on numerous occasions. However, it may be that he is a bit better than that.

I say this because Noble Mission was asked to set a scorching early gallop to take the sting out of his rival’s finishing kick. This he achieved, but the fast pace led to the final three furlongs being really slow. He ran the final three furlongs in 40.39 seconds. That’s 1.2 seconds slower than the next slowest final three furlongs on the card (in the Irish 1000 Guineas) and much slower than the 36.66 seconds they managed for the last three furlongs in the Gallinule Stakes (where the early pace was moderate).

It could be that the fierce early gallop caused a pace collapse which hurt the final time. It is only the fact that the winner and third seemed to run to their past form that holds me back from interpreting the time that way.

One thing that suggests Noble Mission could be better than I’ve rated him is a pattern that’s emerging in his form. It has long been clear that he dislikes fast ground. His success over 10 furlongs this season now raises the possibility that he also isn’t fully effective over a mile and a half on galloping tracks. In this regard it’s worth remembering that none of Noble Mission’s four siblings proved they stayed longer than the distance of the Tattersalls Gold Cup in a truly run race. His half-brother Bullet Train did win the Lingfield Derby Trial but that was off a crawl of an early gallop. Noble Mission ran second on his racecourse debut. Since then his form figures read 11114111 when you exclude races on galloping tracks over a mile and a half and on any sort of track when the word ‘firm’ appeared in the official going description. 

His sole loss in these circumstances came when he started slowly and met traffic problems in finishing fourth to Cirrus Des Aigles.

Runner-up Magician (37) was three and a half lengths behind the winner passing the three furlong pole with rider Joseph O’Brien pushing him along vigorously.

It’s almost certainly the case that Magician is best on much faster ground and is ideally suited to a more slowly run race, especially around a tighter course, where his tremendous acceleration can come into play. 

He remains on target for his attempt at a second win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. I wouldn’t be too disappointed if he fails to win before that as there aren’t many European races which offer his ideal combination of circumstances.