MILL Reef’s effortless win in the Gimcrack Stakes came a few months before I was born, and there have been many wide-margin pattern-race victories by two-year-olds in the decades since.

Celtic Swing’s twelve-length demolition job in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy, Dream Ahead’s nine-length win in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, Manntari’s ten-length dismissal of vastly inferior opposition in the Group 1 National Stakes, Xaar taking the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes by seven, and Frankel’s scintillating ten-length score in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes – just a few that stand out.