‘God it’s hot,’ said a Newbury waitress escaping into the lift from rain-soaked crowds jostling in the bars last Saturday. ‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘It’s steaming.’ ‘Oh no,’ she replied. ‘That’s just the ladies waiting for Tom Jones,’ and the veteran Welsh warbler was indeed scheduled to be the after-racing entertainment.

People go racing for different reasons and for punters one significant clue on Weatherby’s Super Sprint Day was the presence of trainer William Haggas. An invariably courteous interviewee when he is on the premises, the Newmarket maestro is by his own admission not one of those trainers who see jolly slap-up lunches at the races as part of the package they offer. He would rather be at home most times plotting future opportunities for his four-legged clients.

His day began well with Al Aasy winning the ten-furlong Listed Steventon Stakes in the hands of Jim Crowley. The Shadwell-owned six-year-old had earned a reputation for not relishing a battle, which explained why he was allowed to start at 100-30 but he was always going easily and quickened nicely in the final furlong. Said his jockey afterwards: ‘Well, we’ve all been called names sometimes, haven’t we?’ His candid trainer agreed of Al Aasy: ‘Physically he’s been a battle and mentally he’s not straightforward.’ But he added: ‘That’s very satisfying for everyone. They badgered me to run him over a mile and a quarter. I wouldn’t but I finally succumbed.’ What was worth noting was William’s observation that Al Aasy still didn’t look right in his skin but ‘he is coming’. Expect him to be back winning Group races soon.

The worst moment this year for Haggas and his stable jockey Tom Marquand came in the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot when Relief Rally was beaten a nose by the American filly Crimson Advocate. As her trainer says: ‘She was in front a stride before the line and in front again a stride after but not on the line.’ With a super-quick filly who cost only 58,000 guineas as a yearling it did not take him long to target the Weatherby’s Super Sprint, a race he had won twice before with Superstar Leo and Jargelle. The race that carries £250,000 in prize money has special entry conditions. Instead of conventional handicapping on past performance, weights are allocated so that each horse running carries 1lb less for every £5,000 less than £65,000. With a penalty for wins at Windsor and Salisbury, Relief Rally carried 9st 0lb in Saturday’s race but such was her trainer’s evident confidence that she still seemed a reasonable bet as an even-money favourite in a field of 20, seven of them from the Hannon yard which has sent out 11 previous winners of the speciality event. The Hannon-trained Dapperling made the running but when Tom Marquand brought Relief Rally with a run up the near side, she powered away to win by three lengths. Afterwards Tom declared: ‘My heart was broken at Ascot but it’s been glued back together a bit after that. Winning the Supersprint is a big deal and this filly won’t now be remembered for what happened at Ascot, which is great.’ Her trainer is now aiming her for the Lowther Stakes at York – ‘We need to make her a Stakes winner and then we can enjoy her’ – and the end-of-season sprint in Paris, the Prix de l’Abbaye. If she runs there she is likely to be weighted too low for Tom to be able to make it but Mrs Marquand – one Hollie Doyle – might make an ideal substitute.

Trainers are there to find the best opportunities for their horses but there is a certain irony in that the first two home in this year’s Weatherby’s Super came from the multi-horsepower yards of Haggas and Hannon. The race is framed to give some comparatively cheaper horses – and by implication the smaller-scale yards and less rich owners who patronise them – the chance of a good payday. Relief Rally, however, is owned by Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, largely renowned until now for their high-class chasers and hurdlers, the second-placed Dapperling by large-scale owners Jim and Fitri Hay. Divide their assets by the number you first thought of and the four popular owners would almost certainly still pass the qualifying mark for an account at Coutts, their politics permitting.

One handler not at Newbury to see the success of one of his most consistent charges was Michael Dods, the Darlington-based trainer of Commanche Falls and a number of other top sprinters. Three furlongs out in the bet365 Hackwood Stakes, jockey Connor Beasley wasn’t feeling comfortable and had little room for manoeuvre, but when he went for a gap Commanche Falls responded and put his head down to bring the pair an 11th sprinting success together. When I asked him about the trainer’s absence, part-owner Doug Graham replied: ‘Commanche Falls has won us two Stewards’ Cups, a Listed Race in Ireland and now a Group Three, and Michael hasn’t been there for any of them. We’re happy for him to stay away!’