In that race he gave Roderic O'Connor a huge head start while that one set a moderate early pace.

With four furlongs to go Master Of Hounds was eleven lengths behind Roderic O'Connor as he began to step up the gallop. When his stablemate really started sprinting three furlongs out he was still eight lengths behind.

Roderic O'Connor flew the last three furlongs in about 35.1 seconds. The uphill finish means the fastest it's possible to run the last three furlongs at the Curragh is about 34 seconds, maybe 33.8. So the five and a half lengths Master Of Hounds gained on Roderic O'Connor means he was traveling about as fast as a horse can go - and he was doing so without any pressure at all being applied from three quarters of a furlong out. Johnny Murtagh had seen some way out he wasn't going to be able to catch Roderic O'Connor, put his whip down and just nudged Master Of Hounds along from there.

The subsequent performance of Roderic O'Connor in the Dewhurst shows that Master Of Hounds was set an impossible task that day.

On his next and most recent outing before the Racing Post Trophy at Tipperary Johnny Murtagh was clearly determined not to make the same mistake with Master Of Hounds and hustled his mount out of the gate, looking determined to take the lead. However when he saw that two rivals were keen to go a strong pace he took a lead from them and let Master Of Hounds lob along in a close third. Three furlongs out he switched Master Of Hounds out and asked him to go by which he quickly did.

It could be that the tremendous acceleration Master Of Hounds has demonstrated in all four starts since his debut does not mean he's best held up for a late run. He was so totally in control at Tipperary, admittedly against inferior opposition, that I suspect he's best ridden close to the pace as he was there.

Another possibility is that Master Of Hounds' rather short, somewhat choppy stride pattern means he's suited to softer ground than he's so far encountered. His sire, dam and best sibling all acted on yielding ground. The problem with this idea is that in my experience the one thing you can guarantee a trainer knows about a horse is the going it prefer and Aiden O'Brien has kept Master Of Hounds to good to firm or firm ground for all five of his starts so far.

The final and most likely possibility - because it doesn't assume I know more about race riding than Johnny Murtagh and more about training than Aiden O'Brien - is that Master Of Hounds short stride and ability to accelerate quickly make him best suited to races run around a turn, and the tighter the better.

This being so the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf around Churchill Down's seven furlong turf oval looks a very good target for Master Of Hounds.

Trainer Aiden O'Brien suggested before the Racing Post Trophy that one of his two runners would probably go on to contest the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. Master of Hounds is the only one that's Breeders' Cup nominated and looks tailor made for the big US race. The fact that he won at Tipperary, like O'Brien's three previous runners in the BC Juvenile Turf, suggests the race has been on his agenda for quite some time.

Physically I should note that Master Of Hounds continues to look like a sprinter-miler to me. His half brother Eishin Apollon got ten furlongs well enough to run second to Japanese Guineas winner Victoire Pisa, but he's since been cut back to a mile and nine furlongs.

Fourth placed NATIVE KHAN (33) was held up at the back with Master Of Hounds and tried to make his run at the same time. Luckily for him his passage was blocked and he had to switch. This meant that he made his run later and gained more benefit from his rivals finally getting tired after the sustained sprint in the final furlong. He ended up finishing well, looking every inch a middle distance horse.

Native Khan had won both his previous starts in good style, surging through with his long, flowing stride to win a maiden and the Group 3 Solario Stakes with a bit in hand. He looks like a classy sort that will be best over ten furlongs physically.

On what he's done to date I can only rate Native Khan as a Group 3 horse whether I use lines of form or the times of his races. But he keeps showing reserve energy in his races and looks likely to improve markedly for the step up to ten furlongs next year.

The overriding concern with Native Khan is always going to be the ground as he has an unusually long, dead flat stride that's tailor made for a fast surface. His connections pulled him out of the Washington Singer Stakes and then the Dewhurst because they were convinced he wouldn't be able to handle the yielding ground. He got his ground here and was unlucky to have the race not run to suit him. Next year I'd like to see him go for the Sandown Classic Trial, the Dante and the Prix du Jockey Club. I can't see him handling Epsom with that huge stride of his.

I'MSINGINGTHEBLUES GETS INTERESTING

I recognise that I'MSINGINGTHEBLUES invariably cruises along in his races, looking like a champion but tends to idle in front and lose when he should have won. I also know he doesn't seem to get home on stiff tracks or on soft ground or last much beyond two miles. But he was moving so well when crashing out at the fourth last in the Old Roan Chase that I'm inclined to think new trainer David Pipe may have fixed something that was ailing the horse and turned him around.

After all I'msingingtheblues didn't previously seem to like soft ground or stay beyond two miles. But there he was swinging along four out on soft ground, looking to be going best of all in one of the season's top two and a half mile chases. I'm going to be very interested in his chances next time out, whatever the conditions.

Old MONET'S GARDEN (41) won the race and is clearly still a nearly unstoppable force over less than three miles off a break of five weeks plus on anything but a stiff track.

Runner up POQUELIN (41) is a tricky ride as he jumps to the left. He can't jump fences right handed and must be kept to the inside wing on left-hand courses to stop him jumping to the left. This can be a problem in big fields when it gets crowded down the inside so the six runner line up was ideal for him this time.

For a long way Poquelin looked to be going better than Monet's Garden but the old boy out battled him and got home narrowly.

Poquelin is always apt to throw in the occasional clunker when he gets crowded away from the inside in a big field. But in Conditions Chases like this one with small fields he's always going to be tough to beat over two and a half miles.

The soft ground was totally against fourth placed ALBERTAS RUN (28) who must be the most ground dependant top class chaser of recent years. When the ground is genuinely good or faster he's awfully hard to beat, but on yielding or softer you can bet against him with utmost confidence.

PACE NOT DISTANCE THE KEY WITH FRANKEL

Some years ago when I was using the Dosage system to analyse pedigrees I couldn't really fathom why it's chief proponent Dr Franco Varola was so critical of those who used the numbers the system produced to predict a horse's stamina.

The system divides sires into five categories - Brilliant, Classic, Intermediate, Solid and Professional. And up until about fifteen years ago it had a tremendous record at predicting which three year olds would stay ten furlongs or more in Group company and which wouldn't. A two year study I carried out of 10f plus pattern races for 3YO's in Europe showed that horses whose extended pedigrees earned three or more points in the Solid and Professional categories won 3.8 times as often as those that didn't. For various reasons this number fell to 1.9 a few years later. When it dropped even further I stopped using the system.

Varola said that it was never the intention of the Dosage system's inventor Colonel Vullier to use it in such a simplistic fashion. He said it predicted the physical type of horse not their best distance. A 'Brilliant' horse had tremendous pace and acceleration, and as the categories ascended towards the Professional category they suggested less pace and acceleration and more endurance. Horses could stay pretty much any distance, regardless of the category. The categories simply described the way they used their available energy.

I never really understood this at the time but after seeing FRANKEL (42) win the Dewhurst Stakes last week I finally got it.

Whatever today's Dosage numbers or pedigree analysts might say, my bet is Vullier and Varola would tag Frankel as a 'Brilliant' horse for the purposes of their system. He possesses amazing pace and acceleration. That's his dominant attribute.

As long as the early pace is slow enough Frankel can win over any distance by using his astonishing acceleration to outsprint his rivals in the closing stages. It's akin to a super power, like that of a comic book hero.

In his second and third starts Frankel ran in races where the early pace was very slow. As a result he didn't need to tap into the energy he uses for his sprint finish. So he was able to run away from his rivals to score by thirteen and ten lengths.

In the Dewhurst the early pace was much stronger, but it was still relatively slow. They reached the three furlong from home marker 1.5 seconds later than they did in the Challenge Stakes over the same course and distance. This left Frankel with enough energy to sprint the last three furlongs 1.8 seconds faster than the older horses.

To put it another way the older horses ran at a rate of 12.17 seconds a furlong to the three furlong from home point and decelerated to 12.46 seconds a furlong from there. In Frankel's race they went 12.59 seconds a furlong to the three furlong from home point and he picked up to run 11.71 seconds a furlong from there.

The favourable pace scenario enabled Frankel to earn the biggest speed rating I've given a two year old since Xaar won the Dewhurst back in 1997. However it was noticeable that the early pace was strong enough this time to force him to dip further into his reserves to the point where it was beginning to get hard for him to sustain his sprint finish in the last half furlong.

Two year old racing is made for a horse like Frankel because in Europe it's the norm for the pace to be slow in the early stages. But this is not the case when it comes to races for older horses. So, as I see it, anyone who thinks Frankel is going to continue his dominance next year is kidding themselves.

If he were mine I would focus Frankel's three year old season on France and America because the early pace of turf races in both countries is often slow. I would look particularly for races at Longchamp where the long downhill run before the homestraight forces the horses to slow down and ensures that the last three furlongs are run in under 36 seconds pretty much every time.

The very last race I would want to be running Frankel in is the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket because so often that is run like a one mile sprint. Many years the early pace is furious and most years it's strong enough to run the finish out of a horse like Frankel.

If the campaign that has been mapped out for Frankel's first few 3YO runs transpires then I can see him sprinting home off a slow gallop in the Craven, tiring to run unplaced in the Guineas then bouncing back to form if the pace is slow as it often is in the St James's Palace Stakes. If instead he tackled the French Guineas and were rested to come back for the Prix du Moulin and Breeders' Cup Mile I could see him maintaining his unbeaten record.

The thing to bear in mind with Frankel is that if my theory about him is right then all the connections of his rivals have to do is employ a decent pacemaker to beat him. Europe's three top stables - Fabre, Suroor and particularly Aidan O'Brien - have all shown a willingness to use pacemakers when it enhances the chances of one of their top horses. Against Frankel it will always enhance their chances. So there's every possibility Frankel will be confronted with a series of races in which pacemakers force him to go too fast early next year.

Runner up RODERIC O'CONNOR (39) looks a better prospect for the 2000 Guineas than the winner to me. I confess I thought that he only beat his smart stablemate Master Of Hounds last time because that one gave him too much start in a race where he was allowed a soft lead. But this run suggests he actually won that race on merit and is a seriously good Group 1 performer.

I still think O'Brien's very best Guineas prospect is Zoffany but Roderic O'Connor gives him two powerful shots at the colt's Classic.

I was not alone in suggesting that DREAM AHEAD (33) is built and runs like and out and out sprinter before the Dewhurst. So I wasn't surprised to see him tire in the closing stages. I guess it's reasonable for him to still take his chance in the Guineas before dropping back to sprinting later. He could be a major force in the top sprints if he can adapt to fast ground. But he's so big and top heavy there has to be a major concern about that.

CHAMPION STAKES NEEDS A BONUS SCHEME

Just after the start of the Champion Stakes it stuck me that all but two or three of the runners were using the race as a prep for much more valuable international races and that this was the reason none of their jockeys wanted to go on. They didn't want to subject their mounts to a hard race so the first few furlongs saw them race in a tightly packed bunch in which most of the horses were fighting for their heads and the pace was a crawl.

With funding for UK horse-racing now hard to come by the Champion Stakes has fallen from its former lofty status as an end of season championship. The race simply cannot compete with the prize money offered in the Japan Cup, Breeders' Cup and Hong Kong Cup run later on. But perhaps it doesn't have to. Maybe it can thrive through cooperation with those events.

I reckon it would be a smart move to tie the Champion Stakes in to either the Breeders' Cup or Hong Kong's big December fixture with a bonus for winning at each meeting. This would ensure we don't have to witness another Champion Stakes where the jockeys on most of the best runners are scared of giving their mounts a hard race. A bonus scheme would make it much more competitive.

The early pace was so slow that it resulted in a flat out sprint finish in which they covered the last three furlongs an amazing 2.3 seconds faster than top class horses did in the three furlong shorter Challenge Stakes earlier on the card. They actually finished even faster than Frankel did in the Dewhurst.

To win or get close in such an extreme sprint finish a horse has to be in the lead or close to it when the sprint begins. It's impossible for a horse to gain much ground because it's already running as fast as physically possible just to keep up.

TWICE OVER (41) won the race for the second year in a row by kicking on just after the sprint began. He's never going to be anyone's idea of a Champion but is a wonderfully consistent horse and seems to have a particular affinity with his home course of Newmarket. If he hadn't bumped into the brilliant New Approach when second in the 2008 Champion Stakes Twice Over would now have won six of the seven times he's run at Newmarket.

Runner up VISION D'ETAT (40) was prepping for the Hong Kong Cup which of course he won last year. Like a lot of the runners he fought for his head and got into a bit of traffic early on. But he was a close fourth when the sprint began and picked up nicely to go second a furlong out. When his jockey saw he couldn't get to twice Over but was holding the rest he just let him coast home in the final half furlong.

Vision D'Etat was moving smoothly at the finish and full of run. It was clearly a very promising trial.

It looks like Vision D'Etat has a serious chance of pulling off the double at Sha Tin. However there still has to be that nagging concern about his soundness.

Three runs back Vision D'Etat was very nearly forced to be withdrawn before winning last year's Hong Kong Cup because he was found to be stiff. It was the same story before the Dubai World Cup next time. He was eventually allowed to run there too but ran below his best. Trainer Eric Libaud said the horse returned badly jarred up and blamed the surface. But that seems unlikely to me because the surface was Tapeta which provides a good deal more cushion than a typical turf surface or pretty much anything barring soft ground or deep Fibresand like they have at Southwell. Indeed I noted during the meeting at Meydan that a lot of horses with dodgy legs bounced back to form thanks to the extra cushion provided by the Tapeta surface.

It was twenty weeks before Libaud was able to get Vision D'Etat to the races again. And it's surely significant that he brought him back in a race run on soft ground at Deauville, the Prix Gontaut Biron. He won comfortably there from a field better than you'd normally find in a Group 3. And he ran big here too, though I should add the ground was good to soft.

Vision D'Etat has only managed four runs in the last year and has had three reported episodes of serious lameness during that time. Is he going to be able to produce his best on the much firmer surface he's likely to encounter in Hong Kong?

Trainer John Gosden apparently told a TVG announcer in America before the race that it was a simply a Breeders Cup prep for his charge DEBUSSY (39) and that he was not expecting a win because he was best around a turn. As it turned out Debussy ran a big race thanks to being allowed a very soft lead. He was tiring in the final furlong, having sustained his sprint for nearly three furlongs but still ran a good third.

Most people will now think the main question Debussy must answer in the Breeders' Cup Turf is whether he can stay a mile and a half. But I'm inclined to agree with Gosden that around Churchill Down's seriously tight seven furlong oval and off the slow pace they nearly always go in American turf races stamina is not going to be much of an issue with Debussy on the big day.

A more important issue as I see it is the ground. In Europe Debussy has won all four times he's run beyond sprint trips on Polytrack (a surface with plenty of cushion) or on turf where the word 'soft' has appeared in the official going description. His Arlington Million win was on good ground. But 'good' is actually the equivalent of yielding in America (firm is their standard description on turf). This means before this big run on yielding he'd won five out of five on surfaces with plenty of cushion in them.

Debussy has lost all seven times he's run on a fast surface, with his sole place in those seven starts being in the Chester Vase. Gosden said after that race he felt Debussy did not like the firm surface.

The firmest ground Debussy has ever encountered was at Ascot where he got beat over 40 lengths in his worst ever defeat. That day he flashed his tail, something he hasn't done elsewhere. The suspicion has to be he flashed his tail because he was not liking the firm surface and that's why he ran such a clunker.

The Breeders' Cup has been run six times before at this year's venue of Churchill Down's. Five of those six times the going was officially firm. So the odds are clearly against Debussy getting his ground in the big race, but if he does he'd clearly have a serious shot.

Some horses can run the last quarter mile in under 22 seconds when the early pace has been slow. Gitano Hernando seems unable to do so in better than the 22.4 seconds he managed last time out at Dundalk. And for that he needs a clear run where he can build up a head of steam. If he has to slow down to negotiate traffic then speed up again he's in trouble.

Fourth placed GITANO HERNANDO (38) is apparently under consideration for the Breeders' Cup despite the fact it would take a supplementary fee of $100,000 to make him eligible.

Here he was flat to the boards when the sprint began but then gained ground nicely as the sustained sprint finally caused the field to tire inside the final furlong.

Looking at his flat, somewhat stilted stride and his inability to produce a serious burst of speed I have to say that Gitano Hernando does have many of the attributes of a smart dirt performer. He's clearly very smart on synthetic surfaces like Polytrack, Tapeta and Pro-Ride. Now I'm inclined to think he'd adapt well to dirt.

One other big plus about switching to dirt for Gitano Hernando is that the horses get spread out much more than they do on turf or synthetic surfaces and this reduces interference massively - something that's an important consideration for this horse as he's a bit slow to manouver and got into traffic problems a few times in crowded fields.

If he were mine I'd probably want to make the switch to dirt in a much easier race than the Breeders' Cup Classic where I wouldn't have to pay the huge supplementary entry fee. But since it's not my money I'm rather enthusiastic about the idea of his syndicate handing over the cash. He'd be a very interesting addition to the Breeders' Cup Classic field.

Fifth placed WIGMORE HALL(38) needs a faster surface to produce the extraordinary finishing burst he's demonstrated in previous starts. So he did well to get so close here. He apparently won't be running again this year but will be targeting big international prizes next season when I'd give a real shot of picking up something decent.

I liked the way GLASS HARMONIUM (37) managed to finish so close after clearly disliking the sprint finish over a trip that's surely going to prove a bit short of his best. He's looked like a Group 1 winner waiting to happen for a long time to me over a mile and a half. If he gets an invite for the Japan Cup or the Hong Kong Vase I'd give him a real shot. Next year I see him as likely to be one of those late developing horses that his trainer Sir Michael Stoute has shown he can make into a star over 12 furlongs.

FOR NON STOP HARD TO STOP

FOR NON STOP (38) absolutely hosed up on his first start for new trainer Nick Williams at Chepstow. He sat just behind a strong pace, moving easily, then kicked on up the straight to simply stroll clear and win without being extended.

Despite merely having to be nudged along For Non Stop was so full of run he completed the last half mile two fifths of a second faster than they did in the higher grade hurdle over half a mile shorter earlier on the card.

For Non Stop is built for chasing and has already won his sole point to point start. But he's clearly pattern class over hurdles and could well improve further when stepped back up to three miles. Seeing that his official rating is so low it makes sense to try and win a valuable handicap or two over timber before he tackles the bigger jumps. It could be he needs cut in the ground to produce this sort of effort, but that's no problem in the Winter game.

ESCORT'MEN WILL STAY LONGER

ESCORT'MEN (36) ran seriously fast to take the Grade 2 Dovecote Juvenile Hurdle at Kempton last season. He didn't run as quickly to win on his seasonal debut at Chepstow but would have gone a fair bit faster if he hadn't landed on all four feet at the last and lost a lot of momentum.

Before his last flight mess up Escort’men had traveled supremely well and cruised up from last position to take the lead before the last. The fact that he was able to rally and get back up again after being almost stopped in his tracks at the last shows just how much he had left in the tank.

Escort’men is built and bred for chasing and my feeling is his connections should stick to the original plan of switching him to the bigger jumps this term despite the fact he's still only four. He's a proper chasing sort that got stretched into jumping errors at the third last and last here. Over fences he'll have more time to measure the obstacles and I think that will suit him.

It also seems likely that Escort'men will appreciate a step up to two and a half miles, quite possibly more. He would be less likely to get stretched into jumping errors over longer and he's certainly built and bred for distance beyond two miles.

If he does switch to chasing I suspect Escort'men will not be an Arkle candidate because two miles will prove on the short side for him. Then again I could be wrong because at present it looks like the reason Escort'men ran below form at the Aintree Festival is that he bounced due to running so fast at Kempton on his previous outing. Most high class two mile chasers are bests fresh and regress in the same way quite often off fast performances.

Basically it's just too early to say with Escort'men. All I can say right now is he's smart and can run faster than this.