Something in the water? Newmarket horses take over weekend action here and in US

Maybe it's something in the River Kennett, but Newmarket's equine population was hard to beat this weekend.

A week after his second St Leger success, Roger Varian sent out seven winners on Saturday, landing the Mill Reef at Newbury as well as the Silver Cup and the Doonside Cup at Ayr; meanwhile, Charlie Appleby was out of luck with his five runners during the afternoon but cleaned up in North America that night, sending over three winners who all look serious Breeders' Cup contenders.

One of the Appleby heroes, Nations Pride in the Jockey Club Derby, gave Frankie Dettori the ideal send-off into his less than ideal fortnight off, the result of a whip ban in Germany. A distant eighth behind Desert Crown at Epsom in June, Nations Pride was cut to 7-1 for the Breeders' Cup Turf, which seems generous in view of the fact he took two seconds off Aqueduct's record time for 1m4f on the inner turf course, a record set by Pebbles in 1985.