UNHINDERED by my last-minute €10 win bet at 9/1 with Darragh Fitzpatrick, the French-bred Fastorslow confirmed his place among the highest echelons of chasing on Sunday. When I was reporting on the 2018 Arqana Summer Mixed Sale, I wrote the following about Fastorslow.

Bertrand Le Métayer had to go to €100,000 to take home a son of Saint Des Saints out of the Kahyasi mare Popova offered by Charles Brière’s Fairway Consignment. “He is for James Douglas-Gordon,” said Le Métayer. “We have been lucky with Saint Des Saints before and felt that the pedigree of this horse offered some guarantees of precociousness.”