ONE horse that Alpha Centauri could end up meeting further down the line is the year-older Beat The Bank, who got back in the winners’ circle at Ascot on Saturday in the Group 2 Summer Mile Stakes.

Things panned out just about perfectly for the gelding, who got up close home in a well-run race to beat Lord Glitters and Suedois narrowly, recording a 115 timefigure. But this result served to illustrate that this particular group of horses seem much of a muchness, having finished in a different order behind Accidental Agent in a slightly substandard Queen Anne at Royal Ascot.

There was a Group 2 success for Best Solution also at Newmarket, in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes on Thursday, when he beat Mirage Dancer and Duretto by half a length and a neck.

A slightly uneven pace, which resulted in a slowish finish, meant that Best Solution’s overall timefigure was an unexceptional 109, though he had run to a more representative 115 when winning a valuable handicap on the turf at Meydan in February.

Best Solution’s average speed for the whole race was very similar to that shown by Wells Farhh Go at a furlong further in the Bahrain Trophy earlier on the card, with the latter being a three-year-old for good measure.

The result is that Wells Farhh Go gets a timefigure of 112 for beating Loxley (who may not have stayed) by two lengths, which puts him in contention for the St Leger at Doncaster if a few lengths adrift of a standard winner of that race.

YORK

More-established stayers were on show in the John Smith’s Silver Cup at York on Saturday, though this five-runner event turned into something of a sprint. In that respect, Dylan Mouth did well to come from last to beat Dal Harraild by a neck (both horses returning timefigures of just 69), but the latter’s form remains slightly better overall.

It had been a similar story at Leopardstown two days earlier for the Group 3 Stanerra Stakes at the same distance of about 14 furlongs, with Cimeara coming out on top in a fast finish of just 36.45s for the last three furlongs. Her timefigure of 37 is a long way short of the 96 she managed behind Giuseppe Garibaldi on the same course the time before.

Towards the other end of the distance scale, Raven’s Lady’s win in the six-furlong Summer Stakes at York on Friday was another example of a modest timefigure (89) for the grade. Closer inspection shows that the leaders overdid things slightly, with an especially slow final furlong.

Raven’s Lady got into things soon after halfway, but the damage had been done by then, and it reflects well on the always-prominent second Pretty Baby that she rallied to be beaten just a short head. Aidan O’Brien’s representative Could It Be Love had the form to win this but weakened tamely and has had a busy time of things of late.