ONE of the highlights of the latest season has been the impact made by the distaff side in the major races, with Arabian Queen providing one of the great shocks of modern times by beating Golden Horn in the International Stakes at York – a result which is even more difficult to fathom in retrospect than it was at the time.

The same meeting saw a vintage Nunthorpe battle between Mecca’s Angel and the freakish juvenile Acapulco, with the Michael Dods-trained mare winning in scintillating style after Acapulco had apparently put the race to bed with searing early pace.

It’s a pity that Mecca’s Angel missed several other opportunities due to fast ground, but she deserved to be considered as one of the best we’ve seen of her sex at sprint trips, and is undoubtedly still under-appreciated.

That may also be true of controversial St Leger winner Simple Verse, who went on to win against her own sex on Champions Day, and like Mecca’s Angel, will be back for more next year, where Ascot’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes will be her main aim.

Ralph Beckett’s filly is something of a late bloomer, and it’s to be hoped she can continue to progress, as races like the Eclipse and King George are richer for having a top-class filly involved.