Global Weekly Review: Solution found for Derby doubts

The outstanding filly Enable produced emphatic proof she is the best of the Classic generation when taking Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in the mud to join greats Dahlia and Pawneese as a stunning female winner of the Ascot showpiece.

But, as ever, ongoing investigations show Epsom's Investec Derby form to be slowly taking on more credibility.

Godolphin's Benbatl was fifth in the Derby and fifth in the King George, albeit beaten by a wider margin at Ascot.

But his Saeed bin Suroor-trained stablemate Best Solution travelled to Munich on Sunday and produced a performance of great merit to finish second to arguably Germany's best older horse, Iquitos, in the G1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis.

The Kodiac colt failed by only a length and a half to overhaul Iquitos but he ran with great promise and Saeed's choice of next target may define the season for his G3 Lingfield Derby Trial winner

Jockey Gerald Mosse had to be positive right from the start from gate 9, yet Best Solution answered every call from his partner. After being trapped wide on the first bend, he then accelerated on the outside to take up a forward position. He quickened again in the home straight.

Third home Potemkin did well in the circumstances as his rider Eddie Pedroza reported his saddle slipped in running.

Iquitos has the G1 Grosser Preis Von Baden on September 3 as his next assignment. He won the race last year, prior to an end-of-season campaign that included the G1 Japan Cup, in which he finished an honourable seventh.

Iquitos is trained by 74-year-old Hans-Jurgen Groschel, who had contemplated retirement before this son of Adlerflug came along. Now the trainer is thinking of another foreign mission for Iquitos, this time in Melbourne, in the Australian Spring.

Other major wins at the weekend came at Deauville, where Roly Poly, a daughter of War Front, landed her second G1 in the Prix Rothschild, while at Monmouth Park on America's East Coast, Girvin sprang a surprise when scraping home in the G1 Haskell Invitational.

The international spotlight will now focus on Goodwood, on England's Sussex Downs, for five days of top quality racing this week.