Entries for big juvenile races are out - but with youngsters' talent mostly guesswork should we not wait a while longer?
The discrepancy between initial numbers and final fields suggests the window is too wide, says Catherine Macrae
With Royal Ascot a distant memory, Glorious Goodwood fading into the background and the Ebor meeting less than a week away, we are nearing the time of the Flat season when juveniles come to the fore.
Their biggest races are in the autumn, but entries have already been revealed for the Dewhurst and Fillies' Mile. At first glance, the numbers – 52 for the Dewhurst and 45 for the Fillies' Mile – feel healthy, but we should not be fooled.
This time last year we were looking at 61 entries for the Dewhurst and 48 for the Fillies' Mile, yet by the second weekend in October there were just 12 runners combined across the two contests. It was a dismal number, particularly in the Dewhurst, which had just five runners including the supplemented winner Shadow Of Light.
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