Outbreak of realism at HQ as trainers plot sprint campaigns for young stars

"I don't see why he shouldn't get a mile, he finished strong enough there," is the sort of thing we generally hear when a juvenile has just won a major autumnal prize over six furlongs. Saturday was the exception, however, as connections of both the Group 1 winners Blackbeard and Lezoo seem content for their charges to stick at sprint distances next year.

"He looks to be a five- or six-furlong horse," was Aidan O'Brien's line after Blackbeard gave him a seventh success in the Middle Park, pulling two lengths clear of his stablemate The Antarctic. The colt had performed his usual paw-at-the-ground-then-spring-

This was the fourth time in eight years that the Prix Morny winner has followed up in the Middle Park. Perhaps surprisingly, the market preferred the claims of the Gimcrack runner-up Marshman, but there was a warning sign in the recent four per cent strike-rate of Karl Burke's runners and the favourite was below his best in fifth.