While Star Of Light never really seemed to be travelling, he is certainly genuine enough and held on gamely from Courageous Duke, who is another who deserves to win a race soon. Anyone backing horses from the royal meeting at York on a regular basis will be in deep trouble by this stage and those that plunged on La Chunga in the Princess Margaret Stakes added to their misery.

Statistics suggested that horses never win this race carrying a penalty and that, combined with the York factor, convinced me this was one worth laying.
I got involved as heavily as I dared, but as soon as the stalls opened and I saw she was going to be held up off the pace I wish I had done more.

On watered ground I often feel the front runners have the edge, especially if there has been a little rain as well, and this one was a classic bad tactical game.
La Chunga stayed on really well and was only a length behind second placed Nidhaal, who had steered a more prominent course, but both horses were beaten comprehensively by Mixed Blessing, who Keiren Fallon had steered to the stands’ rail and obviously nicked a good advantage.

As for what this race was worth, I do not know - it just told me that I should have scaled things down a bit after that. I didn’t, in fact I went for a huge touch on Goodrich in the International as I thought it was a handicap certainly on his run behind Galeota two outings ago.

He got beaten by half a length and the horse that beat him, New Seeker, is a monster in these sort of races, so I don’t suppose i have the right to feel robbed.

I was Convinced Jamie Spencer had him too far out the back and was overly confident of his ability to cut down what was a very high-class field. Still, the man is riding his way to champion jockey by the look of things, so it probably is just another losing punter moaning. But what is for certain is that Goodricke is set to win a very big race this season Somewhere

After the success of the York theory in the two-year old race, I decided it was time to stick to it for the King George and stuck it up Azamour in style.