DON'T UNDER-ESTIMATE EISTEDDFOD

Irish and French sprints for older horses are usually a gift for British raiders. But I wouldn't under-estimate the performance of EISTEDDFOD (42) who won the Group 3 Prix de Meautry at Deauville in seriously fast time last Sunday.

As trainer Paul Cole noted afterwards "Eisteddfod has now won nine of his 13 races and he was beaten in two because of the draw." I'd add that another one of his defeats was by just half a length to Indian Maiden in a small field at Chester. Indian Maiden is basically an unstoppable force in small fields around a turn (she's won seven out of seven in such circumstances)

Cole plans to bring Eisteddfod back to France for the Abbaye. My ratings indicate the horse will have a real chance in that race.

SILCA'S SISTER IS NOTHING SPECIAL

Silca's Sister (35) won what looks like a very much sub-par renewal of the Prix Morny if my speed ratings are any guide. I wouldn't go betting her for the 1000 Guineas off this run. I'd be inclined to take a negative view about runner-up Ivan Denisovich (32) as well. He'd never run faster than this according to my ratings. So I'm not convinced the soft ground is an excuse. I think he's simply not that fast.

REALISM IS VERY SMART

REALISM (41) ran a good third in the John Smiths Cup and improved on that effort when returning to the same course and distance. He won a valuable handicap by a couple of lengths from an exceptionally strong field.

My ratings suggest that Realism is improving and put up a Group class effort here. He's still likely to be well handicapped even after the penalty for this effort, so I'd be wary of betting against him in the big handicap he's set to contest at Newbury on September 17th.

Runner-up STAR OF LIGHT (39) showed improvement when stepped up to ten furlongs last time and confirmed he's better at the distance with another big run over the trip here. He too looks a future big handicap winner in the making. The same is true of third-placed MOTIVE (39) who ran some fast times on the flat last year before going hurdling.

VALIXIR STILL LOOKING GOOD FOR THE QEII

VALIXIR (26) is effective at a mile - providing the pace is strong. But it wasn't strong in the Jacques Le Marois, so he did really well to finish third in what was effectively a sprint. He stays much further, so he matches the profile of past QEII winners much better than any of the other top milers now in training. This being so I like his chances on what is widely seen as the mile championship of Europe and can't wait till the ante-post betting opens on the race.

I don't really know what Dubawi (27) proved by winning, other than that he can sprint which we knew before.