Timeform reveal the ratings banker, the big improver and a Flag of note at Newmarket on Friday.
The ratings banker
Albaflora - 14:25 Newmarket
Kirsten Rausing's Alpinista was an unlucky runner-up in this last season but the owner can gain a measure of compensation with Albaflora, who has a clear edge over her rivals on Timeform's weight-adjusted ratings.
Albaflora was unraced at two but she quickly developed into a smart performer last season, notably making the St Leger runner-up Berkshire Rocco dig deep in a Listed race at Ascot on her final start of the campaign.
She made her reappearance at the same venue in May and was a hugely impressive winner of the Listed Buckhounds Stakes, finding plenty to storm seven lengths clear of the runner-up, Tribal Craft, who in turn was seven and a half lengths clear of the third.
Albaflora has come up short in four subsequent starts, but she has been set some stiff tasks, including in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks last month. She ran right up to her best to finish runner-up at York and a repeat of that sort of effort would make her difficult to beat.
The big improver
Majestic Glory - 15:00 Newmarket
Majestic Glory has plenty of stamina in her pedigree, being by Frankel out of a mile-and-a-quarter winner, so it is to her credit that she showed as much as she did over six furlongs, her best effort at that trip coming when winning a novice on the July Course.
She took a big step forward on that form when landing the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes on her first crack at seven furlongs, proving well suited by the sterner test and hitting the line hard.
That effort looks even better now than it did at the time as the runner-up, Wild Beauty, has since easily won a Grade 1 in Canada, and Majestic Glory tops Timeform's ratings based on that performance.
She has shown run-by-run improvement and remains unexposed over seven furlongs, so there could be even more to come.
The Timeform Flag
Master Of The Seas - 15:35 Newmarket (Horse In Focus, Horses For Courses, Hot Trainer)
Master of The Seas was a disappointment when a beaten odds-on favourite on his reappearance at Meydan in February but he quickly left that effort behind him, landing the Craven Stakes before finishing a short-head second in the 2000 Guineas, both over the same course and distance that he tackles in the Joel Stakes.
He impressed with how powerfully he travelled in the 2000 Guineas and that form is up there with the strongest on offer.
A setback has kept him off the track since that Guineas second, but he returns at a time when Charlie Appleby's horses are firing on all cylinders and he faces optimum conditions.
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