IMAGINE you are framing a race and you are told that you can have the winners of 14 Group or Grade 1 races competing. They already have amassed earnings of almost £15 million and include one of the greatest racemares of recent times, three classic winners, and top-class performers from the best trainer in both Ireland and England.

The fact is that this race is happening today, offering a prize to the winner in these surreal times of just over £225,000. It is one of the weekend highlights, alongside tomorrow’s Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh, and yet there is plenty of comment, and disappointment, that the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes has ‘only’ attracted four runners.