STANDARD times – an explanation of which could take a whole Time Will Tell column in itself – mean that comparisons may be legitimately made between races run at different distances, on different goings, and at different courses. But there is still nothing quite like comparing the times and sectionals of two races over the same course and distance in quick succession, knowing that minor variations in surface speed will not be a factor.

This proved its worth when comparing the wins of Muffri’ha and Beat The Bank at a mile at Newmarket last Friday. On the face of it, the latter put up a top-notch effort in beating Sir John Lavery by five lengths in the Group 2 Joel Stakes, and there is no doubt that the Andrew Balding-trained gelding is coming on in leaps and bounds.