The Juddmonte didn't live up to the hype - and the best York performance came from this colt who is now a great ante-post Arc bet

I'm not sure what was more repetitive after four days on the Knavesmire, the tunes blasting out from the brass band next to the old weighing room or Andrew Balding picking up another winner's trophy. Even Willie Mullins at Cheltenham in March would have been envious of the Kingsclere team on Thursday, when The Lost King, Prizeland and Machadadorp supplemented Kalpana's Yorkshire Oaks victory. Balding ended the week with 25 runners at York, delivering six winners, including two Group 1s, and a further ten finishing in the top four. Bravo. 

Item got the week off to the perfect start for Team Balding on Wednesday, but what to make of the Juddmonte International overall? Well, it didn't meet my expectations in terms of performance levels. Admittedly, those expectations were set very high as I felt it had the potential to be the race of the year. It wasn't. 

Almaqam ran a personal best in second, but he had the clearest shot at the race of all of the principals, getting a perfect trail in fourth position through the early stages, without any rivals around him to pester and complicate his position, allowing Kieran Shoemark to build momentum as he felt fit on that strip of ground at York just to the far side of centre, which seems the optimal place to challenge. It was a cracking try, but Item would have been unlucky if he had not got to him.