IT’S very good that Epsom Oaks winner Enable is over for the Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh today, it’s great for the race, and it’s also very good that she hasn’t scared away all the opposition. The Oaks heroine is obviously the headline act but there is quality in depth.

It often happens, when there is a standout act in a big race, the potential opposition dissolves. When Alexandrova won the Irish Oaks in 2006, she beat five rivals, with only two other Irish-trained fillies taking her on. That hasn’t happened today, thankfully.