For a Radio Four programme she was hosting Clare Balding once had the idea that it would be fun to apply the techniques of horse breeding to the political world. Strolling around the parade ring at Newbury we duly recorded an item imagining gene mixing between the will to win of a Margaret Thatcher and the indestructibility of a Denis Healey, the feistiness of Barbara Castle with the sinuous positioning of a Tony Blair. Some of those in the couplings suggested even continued speaking to me afterwards.

I sometimes become a sounding board for the views of racing connections aware of my political commentating past and at Newmarket on Saturday one expressed his despair not just at Trussonomics spooking the markets and wrecking his mortgage but at the winner-takes-all aftermath of Tory elections nowadays. Left and Right used to accept, when the fur stopped flying, that there were talents to be used among those of a different political shade. But no longer. Boris wouldn’t promote anybody who had been a Remainer, La Truss steers away from those who supported Rishi Sunak. That shrinks the pool of talent to a very small pond.

Numbers matter in both politics and racing. To produce potential Classic winners you need not just horses with impressive pedigrees but large numbers of them. For Godolphin, Charlie Appleby has around 250 inmates and Saeed bin Suroor another 150. Andrew Balding, Mark and Charlie Johnston and Richard Hannon have upwards of 200 with John and Thady Gosden, William Haggas and Ralph Beckett not far behind. Newmarket on Saturday started to look like another Godolphin benefit day with the Appleby-trained, William Buick-ridden Flying Honours taking the Group Three Zetland Stakes and Silver Knott the Group Three Autumn Stakes.

You can never grudge the cheery Charlie Appleby success, but thank heaven there are a few more yards with the resources to compete and it was Andrew Balding’s Chaldean, sired by Frankel, who took the big one, the Group One Dewhurst Stakes. The sight would have gladdened the hearts of the purchasers of the 25 yearlings by the same sire that fetched 18,745,000 guineas at the Tattersalls sales last week. Everyone wants a Frankel now.

Frankie Dettori, who rode Chaldean, had taken a painful tumble in the first race when Liftoff stumbled and fell. ‘I don’t envy the jump jockeys,’ said Frankie. ‘I’ve got a headache and a couple of knocks but there’s nothing like a Group One to put you right.’ Even with his bruises he demonstrated why he remains the go-to jockey for big races. Making much of the running he injected a burst of speed two furlongs out and then held on to the line under a strong challenge from Royal Scotsman to win by a head. Frankie felt he might have gone a little too early but Andrew declared: ‘It was probably a race-winning move. He didn’t have to make the running but it didn’t look like there was any obvious pace. What we didn’t want was for it to turn into a sprint and for us to be out of our ground.’ Chaldean, whom Andrew says will be well suited to a big field in the 2,000 Guineas next Spring, is the first horse he has trained in the pink and green colours of Juddmonte and there will clearly be plenty more for that big team.

His only sadness was that the horse which went down by a head to Chaldean is owned by Jim and Fitri Hay who have long been big supporters of his. I shared Andrew’s regret: having not forgotten Royal Scotsman’s track record performance at Goodwood when Derby-winning co-trainer Paul Cole said he was as good as anything he has trained, I had backed him each way at a generous 20-1. Co-trainer Oliver Cole said after the Dewhurst that he had been telling everyone at the sales that their horse would win and I certainly won’t be leaving him friendless in the 2,000 Guineas.

It wasn’t my betting day. I was fully convinced that the Cesarewitch, the second half of the Autumn Double, would be won by a jumps trainer with a clearly improving horse put by for the race. The one I had in mind was Nicky Henderson’s Ahorsewithnoname and I had invested rather heavily. The 21-runner handicap over two miles-plus was indeed won by a jumps trainer with a horse put by for the race but the horse who took the £103,000 first prize was Run For Oscar, trained in Ireland by the canny Charles Byrnes. With the horse backed down from 10-1 to 4-1 in the last two days, it was a brilliantly executed coup. Run For Oscar travelled so sweetly that jockey David Egan took a pull three furlongs out to stop getting to the lead too soon and the pair swept away from the field when he chose to win by three lengths.

For me, and I hope for some readers, the day was rescued only by Azure Blue later winning the Listed sprint at 9-2. It was his fourth victory this summer for our Twelve to Follow.