Alpinista’s European adventure takes her towards the summit in Ten To Follow

Despite many of the season’s top performers being primed for the plethora of Group 1 contests on offer at Longchamp this weekend, it was still a busy week across Europe for horses engaged in the Tote Ten to Follow competition.

Sir Mark Prescott often has the passports of his best horses close to hand and Alpinista collected her second German Group 1 as she extended her unbeaten run this season to four in Cologne’s Preis von Europa on Sunday.

That victory earned 28.30 points for the 30 stables who selected her and moved the filly on to 84.30 points for the season, which puts her just one place outside the top ten on the leaderboard.

At Newmarket, several impressive winners added points to their tallies including Benbatl, who landed the Group 2 Joel Stakes for the second time. It was a first success in Britain for Godolphin’s globetrotter – who has contested races from Moonee Valley to Munich and Meydan – since he landed this event for the first time in 2019. His success brought 23.70 points to 38 stables.

Nayef Road and Andrea Atzeni win the Jockey Club Rose Bowl StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Nayef Road, who has been in the shadow of Stradivarius since landing last season’s Sagaro Stakes, got his head in front for the first time in ten runs in the Listed Jockey Club Rose Bowl Stakes, to collect 18.30 points. Another Yorkshire stalwart, Justanotherbottle, the Great St Wilfrid winner, maintained his 100 per cent record at Ripon by adding 15.20 points with his latest win at Yorkshire’s garden racecourse.

The dual Irish St Leger winner Search For A Song, who had been unable to hold on to that Classic crown this month, got back on the winning trail in impressive style in the Group 3 Loughbrown Stakes at the Curragh, with a nine-and-a-half length victory that brought 18.60 points.

The five-year-old mare may have a second attempt at Ascot’s Long Distance Cup on Qipco British Champions Day on October 16 as her next target in an attempt to go one better than last year’s runner-up spot to Trueshan.

However, top scorer St Mark's Basilica will not be adding to his 168.2 points after the announcement of the star three-year-old's retirement on Monday.

Current leader

MyCatChip 837.6 points

St Mark’s Basilica 168.20 points
Hurricane Lane 166.45
Adayar 129.70
Palace Pier 107.33
Love 55.21
Mishriff 53.75
Snowfall 28.41
Lope Y Fernandez 14.80
Thunder Moon 3.00
High Definition 1.30

Top 10 leaderboard

1 MyCatChip 837.60 points
2 Farleys flyers 818.16
3 Farleys flyers 791.55
4 A39 790.45
5 MK’s 18 777.11
6 m17 766.21
7 MyCatChip 762.16
8 Joni’s Poni’s 10 752.96
9 MK’s 13 748.65
10 Sparkies Choice 11 745.11

Top ten scoring horses

1 St Mark’s Basilica 168.2 points
2 Hurricane Lane 166.45
3 Snowfall 166.03
4 Poetic Flare 131.85
5 Adayar 129.75
6 Palace Pier 107.33
7 Winter Power 101.50
8 Mother Earth 96.6
9 Alcohol Free 91.00
10 Starman 87.70

Read more on the Tote Ten To Follow:

St Mark's Basilica and Hurricane Lane top Tote Ten to Follow rankings

Baaeed bags valuable points for believers who brought him in at transfer time

Snowfall and Winter Power turn up the heat for Ten To Follow table-topper

Palace Pier and Santa Barbara keep followers in the hunt with foreign forays

Time to bring on the subs and leading scorer Snowfall could help seal the title

Watch live races through the Racing Post. Log in to your bookmaker account and look on the racecards for eligible races. Click the red 'Watch live now' icon and they're off! Find out how here