IT is not surprising that this year’s St Leger looked as good as it did. All the indications are that this year’s crop of three-year-old stayers is the strongest crop that we have seen in years.

Queen’s Vase winner Stradivarius followed up his Royal Ascot win by going to Goodwood and beating the older stayers in the Goodwood Cup, beating Gold Cup winner Big Orange into second place. He was the first three-year-old to win the Goodwood Cup since Lucky Moon won it 27 years ago. Admittedly, Stradivarius was receiving 13lbs from Michael Bell’s horse, but that’s the weight-for-age scale for you. It has been more or less thus for over 150 years.