SATURDAY’S big meeting at Newbury provided some intriguing timing information, as it relates to the past, the present and, one imagines, the future.

First off, Belardo’s win in the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes vindicated sectional analysis of the colt’s defeat at Sandown the time before, when he had been set far too much to do. This column pointed out that sectional upgrading - which is becoming increasingly widely accepted - rated Belardo a two-length to three-length better horse than the Sandown winner, Toormore.