Saturday evenings in Madrid during the height of Summer are one of the highlights of the Spanish season and by the end of July they are in full swing. There were 3 races on Saturday evening this week and the times and ratings for each race are below. As I said earlier in the week, the sand track continues to ride fast and that was confirmed by 2 of the 3 contests dipping below the standard time. There is just one horse to really note and that is the ex-Jospeh O'Brien horse Stour. I have highlighted this son of Frankel before as he has looked to be one of the best middle distance horses in Spain and he has done little wrong this season to convince me otherwise. He has come a long way since making a winning debut at Dundalk in September 2021 and this win rounded off a hat-trick in the space of 30 days in Spain, his 4th win in 8 starts for his current connections.
He went for just 9,000 guineas at the Tattersalls sale in 2021 and has clearly taken time to fulfill his potential, but he is a well-bred son of Frankel and looks to be thriving in his current form. Whether or not he will be able to translate his Spanish form to the rest of Europe, if he ever gets the opportunity, is open to debate, but for now he is dominating middle distance races and improving each time. I have put a link to the replay below and as you can see, he really isn't extended at all and the rating of 112.4 that he recorded is still one of the highest achieved this season.
