EVEN more exciting than the win of Seventh Heaven from a timing point of view was Mecca’s Angel’s in the Kilfrush Stud Sapphire Stakes earlier on the Irish Oaks card.

The overall time was not out of the ordinary (Timeform went a 110 timefigure: I would have gone three higher), but the way it was achieved certainly was. The race was steadily-run for a sprint early, but Mecca’s Angel thereafter ran the last three furlongs in about 32.6s, which is far and away the fastest closing sectional by a winner at the Curragh this year.

Mecca’s Angel already has a 121 timefigure to her name this year (when second to Profitable at Haydock) but those Curragh sectionals suggest she can get back up to the 129 level that took her to victory in last year’s Nunthorpe Stakes: that was the joint-highest timefigure of 2015.

With her sex allowance, Mecca’s Angel is a formidable opponent when in this sort of form, for all that she races sparingly and that her connections seem to think the state of the ground is crucial to her.

Gordon Lord Byron seems to have been around forever, but is emphatically not a back number, as his courageous success in the Friarstown Stud Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday illustrated. Indeed, he has only twice bettered the 114 timefigure he recorded here in Britain and Ireland over the years (when winning listed races at York in 2012 and at the Curragh in 2015).

The times of both Bocca Baciata’s win in the Kilboy Estate Stakes on the Sunday and Peace Envoy’s victory in the Jebel Ali Racecourse Stables Anglesey Stakes on the Saturday were compromised by steady early paces, especially the former.

Bocca Baciata posted a mere 59 timefigure as a result, but has returned times in the 100s in truer races, while Peace Envoy registered a 93 timefigure but came home smartly (34.84s final 3f) and will surely run a figure well into the 100s when circumstances allow.