US Navy Flag is probably not a superstar in equine terms, but he was definitely overpriced when winning the Dewhurst on Saturday.

As mentioned in The Gambling Times weekend preview, we steered you to him as a value bet in the race, although none of us envisaged such a poor showing from Expert Eye. That can be forgiven in part due to the young colt suffering from lameness. He might bounce back from that next year.

“I don’t think US Navy Flag will be a force in the Classics next season…I think that is reactive nonsense”

I don’t think US Navy Flag will be a force in the Classics next season, despite him being favourite with some firms for the 2,000 Guineas. I think that is reactive nonsense.

He deserves to be up near the top of the market on what we’ve seen, but his shortest price is 5/1 and I would lay that all day long. He’s clearly a good horse who has thrived with his racing, but I’d like to think there are a few horses who we will see next season who could be a whole lot better.

Either way, it’s a long winter and rather than throw money in to the wind at a highly-raced horse I’d rather stash that up for the trials.

Indeed, we should have a bit of a stash after Withhold took the Cesarewitch at the same Newmarket meeting.

Available at double figure odds the night before and even on the morning, we put up Withhold here at The Gambling Times and boy-oh-boy did he deliver. He absolutely dotted up for Roger Charlton and Silvestre De Sousa, breaking the course record in the process.

However, the happiest man of the lot was probably Brighton football club chairman Tony Bloom, a renowned gambler, who paid 170,000 guineas for the horse and was justly rewarded for his faith. This punt, as so many placed by one of sport’s greatest gamblers, paid off.