THERE is no escaping the fact that the week just gone was a low-grade one in the world of Irish and British horse racing, but that is not to say that it was uneventful, with the photo finish to the Ayr Gold Cup providing nearly as much tension as the concluding episode of the much-watched BBC drama “Bodyguard” the following day.

In the end, the result in the race was a dead-heat, with Son Of Rest and Baron Bolt both recording 115 timefigures in coming clear of their many rivals. The Flying Five Stakes Son Of Rest finished second in may well have been a soft Group 1, but this underlines that he is indeed some sort of group calibre on his day.