Future Champions Day at Newmarket, the Cesarewitch, the Sprint Trophy at York, the Silver Trophy at Chepstow and cards at Hexham and Naas. We previewed all 20 races in our Saturday analysis, and this is how the day actually went, course by course.
13:15 Newmarket, Modern Games Darley Stakes, Group 3
Five runners, 1m1f on good to soft, £53,874 to the winner, and Humidity won it at 15/8 for Andrew Balding and James Doyle.
He came into the race as the highest rated horse in it, rated 111 against 3 rivals on 110 and one on 104, and he was still getting weight from every one of them. He carried 9st 1lb. The Lost King, High Stock and Boiling Point all carried 9st 5lb and Haatem 9st 8lb, so he had 4lb in hand of 3 of them and 7lb of the other.
He had also been gelded, and he had not run for 378 days.
It was a very good performance. He bounced out nicely and was able to take a lead off Boiling Point and Haatem, who between them may well have gone too fast, because that pair finished 4th and 5th. From there it was left to Humidity to kick on, and he always had the race under control.
The Lost King ran on creditably into 2nd at 7/4, but you have to think the winner was the best horse in the race and the only one of them going anywhere next season as a 3-year-old turning 4.
The gelding, and the market
You can see the operation in our own data, the same way you could with Study Of Words 24 hours earlier. Read the Sex column on his record: he is a C for colt on every run as a 2-year-old, up to and including his 2nd at Newmarket on 27 September last year. On Saturday he is a G.
In our preview we said that if there was market support for him we would be very interested. There was. He was available at 4.2 on the exchange through the morning, and he was backed in all afternoon: 4.1, 4.0, 3.8, 3.55, and an Exchange SP of 3.09. That is a horse off the track for a year, gelded, top of the ratings, getting weight, and getting money. All 4 pointed the same way.
One last thing worth noting, because it is the sort of detail that gets lost: Andrew Balding trained the first 3 home. Humidity, The Lost King and High Stock, 1, 2 and 3, and High Stock was 20/1.
The rest of Saturday, course by course, is below for Premium and Pro members.