National Defense shows he possesses the right weapons

National Defense posted the joint-best two-year-old performance by a colt in Europe in 2016 when winning the Jean-Luc Lagardere.

As with a few other top-level races run this year, it could be argued the pre-race profiles of those on show lacked the depth we would prefer to see, but the son of Invincible Spirit put up a fine performance to win by a wide margin.

There is little doubt National Defense enjoyed the run of the race in slightly pace-favouring conditions, but he was by far the best on the day, earning a Racing Post Rating of 119.