WHILE sectionals showed that the Dewhurst was steadily-run, they identified that the previous day’s Fillies’ Mile most certainly was not. Under the conditions, a time at halfway of under 50.0s would have been pretty fast, but the entire field dipped under that benchmark, with the leader, Spatial, going through in 49.48s.

It was no great surprise that sustaining such a pace proved too much for many in the field, and it accounts in part for why there were such wide margins between the runners come the line. But Rhododendron and Hydrangea coped well and drew clear, with the former scoring by two and a quarter lengths.

The overall time of the Fillies’ Mile, on a day when a juvenile track record fell in another of the races, was decent but not great, however.

Rhododendron gets a figure of 110, which is sixth-best of the campaign by a two-year-old filly in Britain and Ireland, while Hydrangea is credited with 104.

A number of Rhododendron’s rivals under-performed on the day, for whatever reason, notably Sobetsu, who went from running impressively fast in winning a maiden by 10 lengths to being beaten 15 lengths at the same course and distance less than a month later.

Rhododendron herself had been only third the time before, to Intricately and Hydrangea, in a Moyglare Stakes at the Curragh which is working out well, having beaten both those fillies previously in the Debutante Stakes on the same course.

This effort suggests Rhododendron is the pick of the trio on balance.

What the Fillies’ Mile does show is that Rhododendron thrived in a well-run mile towards the end of her two-year-old year. It seems likely that she will need a strong pace again next May to look anything like as good as she did here.