"He's a very good horse," said the winning rider, Philip Robinson, "a machine.". The vexed future of Crystal Palace is to be raised in Parliament this week. Two furlongs out he was the only horse travelling and came home an easy two lengths clear of Indian Creek. Last year, the four-year-old had been denied a run in the race by refusing to enter the stalls; this time, he was attended at the start by equine behaviourist Yarmy Dyble.

Rakti was another to bear witness to his talents with victory in a Champion Stakes in which most of the leading contenders, notably Nayef, Alamshar and Russian Rhythm, ran as if feeling the effects of long seasons.The ex-Italian Rakti, by contrast, was running for only the third time this year, having been injured when chasing home Nayef at Royal Ascot. Jamie Osborne, whose unconsidered 33-1 shot Milk It Mick bettered the 11-4 favourite Three Valleys in Britain's premier juvenile contest, the Dewhurst Stakes, would certainly have availed himself of the facility. The former jump jockey was in floods after Darryll Holland drove the colt, running for the 12th time, to a head success, the first at Group One level for the trainer and for owner-breeder Paul Dixon, who retained the humbly bred Milk It Mick for just 14,000gns at the yearling sales last year."He doesn't have much of a pedigree," said Osborne, in his fourth season with a licence, "but he always looked like a racehorse and we weren't going to let him go for nothing."A year after Eddery started his apprentice career in 1967, Michael Jarvis set up as a trainer in Newmarket, where he has consistently been one of the quietest of achievers. "It doesn't come any sweeter than this," said his trainer, David Elsworth, "when he does it like that it is pure theatre."After 62 races and 185 miles galloped in anger, the giant 10-year-old is still as sound in mind as in body, as his rivals have found to their cost.

Yesterday's winning distance, from Millenary, was a short-head; it was Persian Punch's 20th victory and eighth in a photo-finish. "Unreal," was Dwyer's verdict.Handkerchiefs really should have been standard issue on the gate. It is a wonderful thing, almost a privilege, to feel that close to the sport and its roots."As is his wont, Persian Punch snatched victory from the very gullet of defeat. He and Martin Dwyer, willing partners, set out to make all, but a furlong out Millenary, Tholjanah and Kasthari had all caught and gone past him. Such a challenge, though, is meat and drink to the horse who has become a genuine peoples' champion He threw his heart up the final hill and went after it. "I love this sport," he said, "and to me he's the embodiment of it, in the mould of an old-fashioned horse like a Stubbs painting.