After a few days of rain, the ground at Newbury had gone soft . TECHNICIAN lined up for the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer STakes over an extended 13 furlongs. He was up against older horses and others rated higher than him and inexplicably he was the outsider of the 5 runners starting at 10/1.

Laying in 3rd for part of the way he then dropped back to be in joint last place and I thought his chance had gone, as the jockey was already gently pushing him. But with 3/8ths to go he suddenly found his rhythm and started to close on the leadres and in the last furlong he quickened some more to nose ahead and win in the end by about 1/2 length. He won despite being slightly interferred with in the last furlong.

The GR 1 St Leger at Doncaster on September 14th, the last classic of the season now looks very much on the cards and although AIden O'Brien has some very talented horses entered TECHNICIAN should hopefully be able to make a bold showing.

On the strength of Saturday's win Timeform have elevated him to 114 and the Racing Post to 113.

It's going to be an exciting September with SPANISH MISSION's plan bening the Grade 1 Jockey Club Derby at Belmont on Sept 7th, a $ 1 million race.