With handicap ratings it’s easy to go with what you already believe. But with speed ratings, the method of comparing race with race rather than horse with horse often flags up errors in your thinking.

This looks to be the case with the Darley Irish Oaks where I was expecting to award a relatively low speed rating to the winner, in line with those I’ve been awarding for most British and Irish Group 1’s for three-year-old fillies up until now. 

However, whatever way I looked at the sectional and final times for the various races, they kept suggesting a rating of 39 for the Irish Oaks rather than the 37 I thought I’d be giving.

Rounding the home turn it looked like Tarfasha (36) was the most likely winner because only Tapestry was moving as well and Tarfasha was much closer to the lead than the Ballydoyle filly.

Soon after she’d moved into a clear second place approaching the two furlong pole Tarfasha emptied, visibly running out of stamina.  As Tarfasha steadily lost ground from two furlongs out, I was mentally kicking myself for assuming she was a guaranteed stayer based on her second in the Oaks at Epsom and her stout pedigree on the dam’s side. 

The truth is Tarfasha is a rather racy, athletic-looking sort who had performed a good deal better when winning over 10 furlongs at Naas than she had when second in the Oaks over 12 furlongs - at least according to my ratings. 

Seeing Tarfasha tire so obviously here convinces me that 10 furlongs is her optimum distance. It also has me questioning the hype surrounding her Epsom conqueror Taghrooda. It strikes me that if Tarfasha could run that one so close over a mile and a half then the winner can’t be that good.

Indeed, I gave Taghrooda a rating of only 38 for her Oaks win. That’s solid Group 1 class for a three-year-old filly but a good deal away from what’s required to give her a realistic chance against older males in today’s King George at Ascot.

Volume (39) made the running in the Irish Oaks and kept on really strongly to lose by just half a length. Her jockey and trainer had expressed doubts about her ability to handle the tight turns and steep gradients of Epsom and she clearly improved around this simpler and much more galloping course.

Before getting unbalanced when running third in the Oaks at Epsom, Volume had won three of the four times she’d run beyond a mile. Her sole loss came when she ran third to the good St Leger prospects Cloudscape and Windshear in a red hot handicap against males at Newmarket.

I like the way Volume ran with such energy here and kept on running so strongly. It was the performance of a high class filly. 

Volume’s trainer, Luca Cumani, has a very good record with fillies. Five of the last 10 fillies he’s run in the Yorkshire Oaks have finished first or second. I’d say Volume has a very good chance of improving on Cumani’s record in that race.

The runner-up Tapestry (39) may well turn out to be the best horse in the race. She boiled over in the massively extended preliminaries which resulted from Volume needing to be re-shod. 

She showed clear signs of greenness in the race itself, racing with her head too high and responding rather late to her jockey’s urgings, and had to contend with a slipping saddle.

She was moving really well, four lengths off the lead in sixth place with three furlongs left and was still two lengths down at the furlong pole. From there she picked up really strongly and very nearly got up.

It was hard not to be impressed with the way Tapestry started to get rolling late in the Coronation Stakes on her previous start. Two furlongs out, she was being ridden along and was going nowhere. 

Inside the last furlong as they hit the rising ground, she started to move much better than her rivals and began gaining. Here she confirmed the impression that an extra half mile would improve her.

There are an awful lot of good middle distance fillies around when you take account of the older horses and the French three-year-olds. There’s probably not going to be much difference between the remaining Group 1s for fillies and those for colts.

I don’t think it would be a silly idea at all for Tapestry to take up one of her Group 1 entries against colts rather than going the traditional path of the Yorkshire Oaks or Prix Vermeille. 

All that’s needed is for her to get a bit more organised as she gains experience and she’ll be a threat to win pretty much anything.

The winner Bracelet (39) kicked on at just the right time to get by the front-running Volume then hold the late rush of Tapestry.

Bracelet races in a more professional manner than the runner-up and stays well. Her only loss in five tries beyond six furlongs came in the Guineas where the distance was inadequate and she may well have needed the run. She’d be a threat in any big fillies’ race.