First Flow undoubtedly the real weekend wonder

Tina Turner told us once that we didn’t need another hero but when it comes to racing it seems all anyone wants is the next superstar because I was rather taken aback by the reaction to Royale Pagaille’s Peter Marsh romp on Saturday.

The first thing to say is that he is clearly very good and well worth a place in the Gold Cup field but surely he didn’t achieve anywhere near as much as First Flow did at Ascot on the same day and a good bit less than A Plus Tard did in the Savills Chase.

Of course he was impressive but the only young horses in the Peter Marsh either didn’t run or failed to finish. If you had taken Sam Brown, Sam’s Adventure and Acey Milan, his three closest rivals in the market, out of the race before the off, Royale Pagaille would have been long odds-on. Of the seven runners he ended up having to beat, only one of them had finished within 36 lengths of the winner on their last start and that was Potters Legend, who was beaten ten lengths in a veterans’ chase.