HOLD the front page! Hold a good few pages, in fact. Emily Upjohn isn’t running in the Irish Oaks. There was a bit of helter skelter in The Irish Field offices yesterday but we’re all good and the show goes on.

A bird strike to the plane due to carry John and Thady Gosden’s filly from Stansted to Dublin yesterday meant nobody was going anywhere. The Curragh’s loss is Ascot’s gain, because she now goes for the King George next Saturday and provides a welcome boost to that Group 1 after news that Desert Crown would miss the race came through this week.