STRIKING AMBITION THE KING OF SMALL FIELD SPRINTS

That anguished scream you might have heard last Saturday night was me responding to the result of the Prix du Ris-Orangis at Deauville. I hadn't bothered looking at the race in the morning and so missed noticing that STRIKING AMBITION (40) was running in a small field.

Striking Ambition is one of those horses I feel I've really figured out. I know there is one particular circumstance where he's almost unbeatable - and that's in a small field. He had an amazing record going into the Deauville race in small fields. He'd run in five sprints with less than ten runners and won them all. Now he's won six out of six, the latest at a mouthwatering 12-1 which makes me very grumpy for having missed it.

I suspect the reason that Striking Ambition does so well in small fields is that they tend to generate a slower pace. In this regard it's also worth noting that but for one narrow loss he would have won the last five times he's contested sprints in France and Ireland where the early pace is invariably slower than it is in British races over five and six furlongs. Sadly this doesn't mean Striking Ambition is the one to be on in the Prix Abbaye. That race is contested by so many British sprinters it's almost always run at a fierce gallop - as evidenced by his wide margin loss in the Abbaye of 2003. We're just going to have to wait till Striking Ambition ventures abroad for some other sprint or finds himself in a small field once more. That could be a long time happening.

The well bred three year old filly NIPPING (39) had run her best race of the season last time and improved again here on the step up to six furlongs. If there were sprint races restricted to her age and sex she'd be almost unbeatable. She still looks to be some tool for the weak Group sprints they have in France, as long as she can avoid the smarter British raiders.

VOLTMETER COULD BE A LEGER CANDIDATE

You don't often see a three year old run a pattern class time over the St Leger trip in early July. But that's what VOLTMETER (37) did when winning a warm looking conditions race at Deauville last Saturday.

Being by Giant's Causeway it's not surprising Voltmeter had been kept to ten furlongs for his previous five starts. However he clearly appreciated the step up to a trip only 33 yards shy of 1m 7f here because it enabled him to break his maiden in unusually fast time.

Votlmeter holds entries in two Group 1 races - the Arc and the Grand Prix de Paris. But trainer Eli Lellouche must surely now be thinking in terms of another Group 1 race run at Doncaster in September.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN FOR NEEDLECRAFT

Henri-Alex Pantall told Paris Turf that he thought NEEDLECRAFT (38) would turn out to be a Group 1 performer after her debut win. He looked to be wrong when the filly proceeded to run unplaced on her next two starts. But he thought there had to be some explanation and tried an experiment with ear plugs on her next start at Saint-Cloud. They seemed to work for she won well there and followed up with a win in fast time in the Group 3 Prix Chloe at Saint-Cloud.

Pantall said after the race "the ear plugs are beneficial for her. She is a rather delicate filly and the fact of having stoppers in her ears relaxed her a good deal."

No doubt the ear plugs will remain in all Needlecraft's future races. Just what those will be is hard to say as she holds no engagements and Pantall didn't mention any to reporters. Most likely she's going to get the normal Summer break that top French horses get and will be targeted at something big in the Autumn. She's a horse to remember when she returns as she earned one of the biggest speed ratings I've given a three year old filly so far this season.

BAGO STILL LOOKING GOOD FOR THE KING GEORGE

I have complained here before about the inaccuracy of the Pentrometer in measuring the state of the going in France. Last week we had another prime example of this at Saint-Cloud. The Penetrometer reading indicated the going was good to soft. Race times show it was actually firm.

In my experience one big problem with an inaccurate going report such as this is that it frequently suckers jockeys into setting too slow an early pace. They go what would be a decent pace if the ground was as soft as the official report says, but it's a slow pace for firm ground.

I've seen a couple of reports that indicate the early pace in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud was strong. But the final time says it simply can't have been. The winner Alkaased (37) ran about a second and a half slower than he should have done in a true run race. The only way you could say he ran faster would be to assume that the entire field in the minor stayer's handicap later on the card suddenly improved ten lengths or that the standard time for 1m 7.5f of that race should somehow be faster per furlong than for the mile and a half of the Grand Prix. Neither eventuality looks remotely possible on the available evidence. The clock says the early pace must have been slow in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Slow enough anyhow to produce a sub-par final time.

BAGO (34) has only ever been beaten so far in slow run races where he got caught flat-footed when the pace quickened before finishing strongly but too late. That's exactly how he ran here. It's also the way that REEFSCAPE (33) ran as well, and he's another horse that can get caught for acceleration in a slow run race.

According to Paris Turf Bago was also short of room twice - once entering the straight and then again at the furlong pole. It seems to me that in the circumstances he did everything you could hope for and that he remains the one they all have to beat in the King George.

The King George is virtually never slow run. Around Newbury's dead flat two mile oval with its half mile run-in, I still find it hard to see how anything is going to be able to hold Bago's trademark long late surge.

JANJAN A NAME TO REMEMBER

JANJAN (38) bolted up by six lengths in a minor conditions race at Maisons-Laffitte, earning a Group 3 class rating from me in the process. This three year olds is clearly improving and is very well suited to a mile and a half. He holds no fancy entries but I'd give him a serious chance of earning some black type soon.