NEWCASTLE’S feature flat day saw a 33/1 shock winner of the Northumberland Plate as Nicholas T (101) found a turn of foot that belied his age to run down the entire field and deny the gallant front-running effort of Hochfeld (101).

Any suspicion there was a pace collapse is dispelled as comparing the finishing effort of Jim Goldie’s nine-year-old with Chil Chil (110) who won the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes shows the veteran son of Rail Link to have finished off just 0.6 seconds slower than Andrew Balding’s 106-BHA-rated sprinter.