Better quality late two-year-olds appearing

This is my favourite time of year, with the better quality late-developing two-year-olds starting to appear.

I am not sure that Worlds His Oyster falls quite into that category, but he looked very useful when showing a sharp turn of foot to beat the short-priced favourite Spanish City by three and a quarter lengths in the 6f maiden at Newcastle today. I fielded against the favourite for my PCS clients, on the grounds that he had not done a particularly good time when third on his Haydock debut, but even so the winner looked useful with trainer John Quinn suggesting afterwards that there were better things in store for him. He added that the son of Pivotal was a sick horse when he returned from his debut at York, but there was a twinkle in his eye when discussing the colt afterwards and I suspect he will prove good enough for Pattern-class races either later this autumn or next season.

Taurean Star won the opening 6f maiden at Ascot in pleasing style. Jamie Spencer said afterwards that the son of Elnadim works like a useful horse at home but has not really reproduced that level of ability on the track. There was much to like about the way he weaved his way through the field to win this, and he could be interesting in a back-end maiden or even something better. This six furlongs looks better for him than the seven furlongs of his first two starts.

The most impressive two-year-old winner of the day was Priceless at Haydock. Clive Cox’s daughter of Exceed And Excel hacked up by a wide margin on her debut, with the odds-on favourite Jadaayil dropping away to finish fourth. I rate this useful form.