IT was difficult not to be taken by Lord North’s performance in winning the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on Wednesday. John Gosden’s horse showed a seriously impressive turn of foot to come from last place to first, and he won easily, going away from top class rivals. 5/1 for the Eclipse looks big.

In the Hampton Court Stakes, run over the same course and distance just over an hour earlier, Russian Emperor wasn’t as visually impressive as Lord North, but the figures suggest that it was very good. The performance that Aidan O’Brien’s colt put up looked more stamina oriented than speed oriented but, according to the published sectional times, he covered the last two furlongs in 24.13secs, only 0.09secs slower than Lord North did, and that was after getting to the two-furlong marker in a time that was just 0.17secs slower than Lord North’s time to that point. And they carried the same weight, 9st, one a 112-rated four-year-old, the other a 105-rated three-year-old.