IT is sadly often the case that when a race is built up as “the race of the year” (or of the decade, or of the century) it fails to deliver. “The two-year-old race of the year,” certainly seemed justified in the build-up to last Saturday’s Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes. There was no Pinatubo – on 130 my highest-rated juvenile in recent years – but there were unbeaten performers from Ireland (Siskin), France (Earthlight) and Britain (Mums Tipple) vying for favouritism, plus several other very useful types.

In the event, Siskin did not show – withdrawn after getting upset in the stalls – and Mums Tipple might as well not have, fading tamely and found to have been lame. But Earthlight did get the job done, albeit by just a neck from Golden Horde, with rank outsiders Summer Sands and King Neptune close up.