The turf | 18 July 2019

Newmarket’s wisest trainer, Sir Mark Prescott, once noted: ‘The greyhound is propelled through the pain barrier by its desire to sink its teeth into the tantalising white bunny tail ahead of it. Humans are driven through it by the desire for riches and stardom. But what’s in it for the racehorse?’ His words came to mind after Beat The Bank, owned by King Power Racing, the operation founded by the late Leicester City chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, and trained by Andrew Balding, won the Group 2 Summer Mile at Ascot on Saturday for a second year. It was a ninth victory in 18 races for one of the most popular horses in his leading yard, but tragically his last.

Beat The Bank looked magnificent in the paddock and showed his usual guts and determination to win by a nose. But you could see from how rapidly Silvestre de Sousa pulled him up that Beat The Bank had suffered an injury in his final strides. This resulted, alas, in him having to be put down. He was a horse who answered the Prescott Question by his sheer zest and eagerness to compete and was clearly a brave horse too.

I love this time of year. With Royal Ascot over, Newmarket staging meetings on the matey July course, Monday nights at Windsor in full swing and Glorious Goodwood and York’s Ebor meeting soon to come, we are sorting out the potential group candidates from the handicappers and can start noting a few horses who will be worth following through their careers.

Perhaps because the bookmakers are currently obsessed with multiple bets on the incomparable Frankie Dettori, who was riding at Newmarket last Saturday, those of us who opted for Ascot instead found some surprising betting bargains.