BY my reckoning, there were at least 20 Group/Grade 1s around the world last weekend, including those at Longchamp dealt with elsewhere, seven of them in the US.

The most prestigious of that septet – the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico – was also the best, if only just. The Haskell Stakes and Kentucky Derby winner Authentic failed narrowly in conceding 3lb to the ultra-tough Grade 1 Alabama Stakes-winning filly Swiss Skydiver, the pair having a memorable duel in the home straight as they came nearly 10 lengths clear.