THE evergreen seven-year-old Benbatl (Saeed Bin Suroor/Oisin Murphy) got the biggest cheer of the day on Friday as he gamely landed the Group 2 Joel Stakes by three-parts of a length from the front-running Pogo (Charlie Hills/Kieran Shoemark), the latter setting the race up and battling on gamely when headed a furlong out.

Given the times were fast all day and Pogo did his pacemaking duties with rare enthusiasm, it was no surprise to hear that the winner had lowered the track record set by Kameko in last year’s 2000 Guineas.