SOME time analysts have taken a remarkably low view of the winning performance of Innisfree in Sunday’s Beresford Stakes at the Curragh. Or it would be remarkable were it not that no data source I have seen mentioned that the mile he ran over was completely different to the mile others ran over on the day.

The Beresford started in a chute on the round, or Derby, course, which usually rides a bit slower than the straight, added to which Google Earth suggests that Innisfree’s mile was about 25 yards longer than the two “straight” miles which followed it.