I am reminded of this as I sit to pen this column having just watched Dalakhani’s daughter Integral announce her arrival on the Group 1 stage with a victory in the Falmouth Stakes. In the race she beat three other Group 1-winning fillies.

The importance of this development can be viewed in a number of ways. There is a financial incentive to keep fillies racing for longer, no more feeling that they have to be packed off to the breeding shed at the end of their three-year-old career. Five of the seven runners in the Falmouth were four-year-olds. It is good for racing to see top-class mares stay in training.