The bare time of his win merits exactly the same rating I’ve awarded him on numerous occasions. However, it may be that he is a bit better than that.

I say this because Noble Mission was asked to set a scorching early gallop to take the sting out of his rival’s finishing kick. This he achieved, but the fast pace led to the final three furlongs being really slow. He ran the final three furlongs in 40.39 seconds. That’s 1.2 seconds slower than the next slowest final three furlongs on the card (in the Irish 1000 Guineas) and much slower than the 36.66 seconds they managed for the last three furlongs in the Gallinule Stakes (where the early pace was moderate).