THE biggest race in the past week in Britain and Ireland, in what was a quiet period at the top level, was the Group 2 Celebration Mile at Goodwood. It is not always much of a race for the level, but this year’s edition was well up to scratch and produced the joint best timefigure nearer to home.

Arod ensured a good pace and that worked perfectly for the same owner’s Lightning Spear, who is customarily held up and who had occasionally been set too much to do. Lightning Spear swept through to lead late on and beat Zonderland by a length and three-quarters, in the process recording a time just 0.35s outside the track record.

In timefigure terms that is equivalent to 119, which is the joint-20th fastest figure of the year in Britain and Ireland. That defines Lightning Spear pretty well: he is a very smart performer – under-rated by many before this it would seem – but probably not quite up to winning at the top level.

The other 119 recorded in the past week came in defeat from Ulysses in the Group 3 Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor. The three-year-old went down by just a short-head to Chain Of Daisies despite meeting the year-older filly on terms worse than weight-for-age. Chain Of Daisies had registered a 107 when winning at Salisbury and went even higher with a 114 here, setting a strong pace and rallying after her number had briefly looked up (touched over 40/1 in play).

Berkshire ran in similar style when winning the Listed August Stakes shortly after, with sectionals showing that his unexceptional timefigure of 98 deserves upgrading (runner-up Majeed ran more efficiently in coming from several lengths back).

Sectionals also suggest that Kilmah was fortunate to win the Group 3 Prestige Stakes back at Goodwood, having dictated matters and run a time equivalent to just 81. Runner-up Promising (80 timefigure) was ridden much less enterprisingly and deserves extra credit despite not quite being able to get past late on.

Opal Tiara did not need to repeat the timefigure from her York handicap win (105 compared to 107) to come out on top in the Group 3 Supreme Stakes at Goodwood on Sunday, her appetite for a battle appearing to be in contrast with that of the runner-up, Convey.