SO just one three-year-old in the Ebor, Fields Of Athenry, who races off a mark of 118. The 12lb allowance that the classic generation receive over a mile and six furlongs at this time of year means that a three-year-old would need to have had a rating of at least 111 to get a run in today’s race.

In one sense, you can empathise with those who bemoan the fact that we don’t have the three-year-old progressive contenders any more. In another, however, the Ebor is a more competitive race as a result. Give The Slip won it for the classic generation in 2000 and Mediterranean won it for them the following year. No three-year-old has won it since, but only nine have run in the race, and six of them have been placed. If you allotted places in the Ebor on handicap ratings rather than on weight carried, you would run the risk of making it a race for three-year-olds, and we have plenty of them already as things stand.