WHILE sectionals showed that the Dewhurst was steadily-run, they identified that the previous day’s Fillies’ Mile most certainly was not. Under the conditions, a time at halfway of under 50.0s would have been pretty fast, but the entire field dipped under that benchmark, with the leader, Spatial, going through in 49.48s.

It was no great surprise that sustaining such a pace proved too much for many in the field, and it accounts in part for why there were such wide margins between the runners come the line. But Rhododendron and Hydrangea coped well and drew clear, with the former scoring by two and a quarter lengths.