Frustration for Robert Havlin, twice edged out by Frankie Dettori in York's biggest races

Big-race reports nearly always have a hard focus on the winners, understandably, but it is worth considering what Saturday at York must have felt like for Robert Havlin. He's long had the unglamorous but wholly essential job of bringing future stars through their early races before Frankie Dettori hops aboard for the biggest days, so it must have been especially galling to be pipped by that same Dettori in the two most valuable races on the card.

Havlin produced a career-best performance from Audience in the City of York Stakes, in which the 20-1 shot made most of the running and was beaten three-quarters of a length by Kinross. Second place, just ahead of Sandrine, was a bonus in those circumstances, when victory had not seemed a realistic possibility.

Then came the Ebor, in which Havlin was on Sweet William, the 5-2 favourite because of a sequence of three wins since the fitting of blinkers. Unlike most other horses trained by John and Thady Gosden, Sweet William is not a ride Dettori can take because his owner Philippa Cooper likes to use Havlin.