SOME of the talk has turned recently to which horses might make into St Leger types. There are likely to be more talented candidates than Raheen House come the day, but few who will get the distance as well as he promises to.

His win in the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket came through grinding away and capitalising when his rivals finally cracked – as sectionals show – and his timefigure of 108 proved to be one of the best anywhere in a low-key week. Third-placed Sofia’s Rock did well given how fast he went up front.

Quickening rather than grinding is what was required from Mutakayyef to win a steadily-run Summer Mile at Ascot for the second year running, and he did that with aplomb to master front-running Kaspersky by three lengths. The winner’s timefigure was just 97, compared to a personal best of 124 at York last year and his ability to get back to that level will depend on him recovering from lameness here.

Somewhat surprisingly, the fastest British timefigure of the week came at Newmarket in a listed race from Beat The Bank, who ran a 111 figure in beating Forest Ranger by three lengths.

FASTEST TIME

Even more surprisingly, perhaps, the fastest timefigure in Britain and Ireland came from Moviesta (113) in winning a five-furlong handicap at Dundalk on Wednesday. The Edward Lynam-trained gelding won off a Turf Club mark of 107 (Osterhase was the last to surpass that, in 2006) by nearly three lengths and may well be obliged to try listed/group races again now.

The identity of the horse with the fastest timefigure by a two-year-old was unexpected, also. The Curragh maiden winner The Pentagon was the Aidan O’Brien second choice on betting and jockey bookings but looked a class apart in scoring by daylight, running a 109 timefigure and a swift 34.15s for the last 3f.

The only juvenile maiden winner to run faster in relative terms in recent years was Cliffs Of Moher (110) at Leopardstown, and he has turned out fairly good!

At a lesser level, Golden Spell looked a two-year-old filly with a future after she ran a 95 timefigure in winning a nursery at the Curragh on Sunday.