Noble Champion (Ire)

Simon Sadler's TBT Racing was in the number one spot at Royal Ascot for the first time on Saturday as Noble Champion (Lope De Vega) dominated the G3 Jersey Stakes. Highly-regarded by Ed Walker, the half-brother to seven-furlong specialist Pogo had proved frustrating in three starts this term but not here as he came home alone under Kieran Shoemark. Always travelling easily tracking Godolphin's Spy Chief (Kingman) up the centre, the 25-1 shot swooped approaching the furlong pole and despite veering left from there recorded an emphatic 3 1/4-length success...

The return of Seven Days earlier this week allows us to close the book on the stopgap that was Winter Watch. Before you know it the first Classics of the season will be upon us, leaving the cold, dark months that spanned 13 editions of this column since it first came into being in November as nothing but a distant memory. Albeit not too distant, I hope. After all, the whole reason why we embarked on this journey in the first place was with those very Classics in mind, informed...

It was perhaps fitting last week that the inaugural edition of Winter Watch going to print should coincide with the arrival of snow across many parts of Britain, albeit we now find ourselves with one less meeting to report on after the cold snap brought terminal consequences for a certain all-weather track in Nottinghamshire. Consider yourself lucky if you spent that particular Monday evening in the warmth of home, cup of tea in hand ready to find out what this Winter Watch was all about. Meanwhile, all of those involved...