RECENT winners of the Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury have varied in ability, from some that have been unexceptional to a few that have turned out decidedly good, most notably Harry Angel in recent times.

It seems a decent bet that this year’s winner – Harry Angel’s half-brother by Cappella Sansevero, Pierre Lapin – will be one of the better ones, not just because he beat horses with useful form decisively but because he backed it up on the clock also.

Pierre Lapin’s overall winning time of 1m 10.90s has been surpassed only once in the race’s long history (by James Garfield’s 1m 10.64s in 2017), though that is in part down to ground conditions that were pretty firm. He ran the last two furlongs in 23.0s by my reckoning, which means a 111 base timefigure gets edged up to 114 on sectionals.

Mystery Power, a Group 2 winner previously who was conceding 3lbs, was put in his place but gets a 108 timefigure edged up to 110 due to a 23.22s closing split.

Pierre Lapin looked anything but slow here, and connections reportedly regard him as a sprinter, but my interpretation of his striding, both here and on his only previous run at Haydock, offers a fair amount of encouragement that he will get a mile in due course.

The seven-year-old Desert Encounter is as worldly-wise as Pierre Lapin is still wet behind the ears, but his win in the 11-furlong Legacy Cup on the same card was similarly meritorious, worth 110 basic and 113 on sectionals in my book.

Talented, but also something of a “thinker”, Desert Encounter seems to get on especially well with Jamie Spencer, who combined with him for a third win in a row. He has a rare turn of foot for a middle-distance performer.

Dakota Gold’s even longer run of victories came to an end earlier on the Newbury card in the World Trophy, but there are reasons to think he can win at this Group 3 level another day. It took a smart performance from Maid In India (112 base timefigure, 113 on sectionals) to deny him, and sectionals show that Dakota Gold (113/115) did just a bit too much too soon.

Newbury’s meeting on Friday featured nothing higher than a listed race but was chock-full of interest with the future in mind.

Smokey Bear ran a notably fast timefigure (102) when landing the second division of the six-furlong two-year-old maiden in a time 1.21s (over seven lengths) faster than the first.

Tritonic dented some big reputations (notably Cape Palace’s) when winning the mile juvenile conditions race readily with a timefigure of 98, while the older horse Tabarrak was the winner of that listed race, but with an underwhelming 91 final time.

Best of all, however, was Quadrilateral, who ran the seven furlongs in 0.04s (about a neck) quicker than Tabarrak had done 35 minutes earlier when winning a fillies’ conditions race by nine lengths.

The daughter of Frankel did not have a lot to beat, but that time and her sectionals add up to a figure of 108 and mark her down as a group-class filly, if not quite of the calibre of 115-rated Raffle Prize so far. While that one may prove to be a sprinter, Quadrilateral promises to stay a mile and is now ante-post favourite for next year’s 1000 Guineas.