FEW horses have got all that close to the aforementioned Muhaarar this year, with the exception of the time when he was unplaced in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at Longchamp in May.

Tropics got closest, when beaten a nose in the July Cup at Newmarket, while the very smart French mare Esoterique ran him to half a length at Deauville.

Estidhkaar is something of a forgotten horse of the 2015 flat season but did nearly as well as the former and better than the latter when beaten just a neck by Muhaarar in a course-record-breaking Greenham Stakes at Newbury in April. It is highly likely that Estidhkaar put in a seriously good performance then - it resulted in a timefigure of 121 that remains in the top 10 of the year in Britain and Ireland - and his subsequent flop in the 2000 Guineas is excused. His return to action in Deauville is keenly anticipated.