THERE was only one Group 1 on the flat in Europe in the period under review, and, almost inevitably, it went to the peerless Aidan O’Brien.

The Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket was, remarkably, Roly Poly’s third such success this year, despite the fact that she is probably not quite out of the top drawer.

The time she recorded here was less than 1.0s outside the course record despite the ground being officially “good”, with a strong tailwind speeding up times throughout the card.

This effort was worth a timefigure of 112, but Roly Poly’s best of 114 came in defeat by her stable-companion Winter in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Some of Roly Poly’s rivals ended up a bit far back in a race in which the runners finished quickly – Qemah most of all in sixth – but that’s not to say that she was an undeserving winner in any way.

Roly Poly’s time was easily fastest of the four winners at a mile on the Newmarket card, but in relative terms Old Persian in the opener was pretty impressive, too, given that he was a two-year-old and running in just a novice contest.

A timefigure of 100 for Old Persian is useful, and his last three furlongs of 34.97s (103.9% finishing speed) suggests he can win a listed race and be competitive in group contests.

The other two-year-old contests at Newmarket on Saturday resulted in poor winning times, but the maiden won by Just Brilliant (65 timefigure) looks to have plenty of potential improvers in it. The runner-up Silver Quartz and fifth-placed Supernova were fastest sectionally and could easily be winning before long.