THERE have been a number of examples in recent weeks of outsiders winning or finishing close up in races which may not have been all they seemed. But the unexpected does not automatically indicate that a given piece of form is suspect: each example must be judged on its own merits.

An example of an unexpected result which has some substance to it is last week’s Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh. The odds-on Even Song ran poorly, and the British raider Ajman Princess ran even worse, but there are good reasons to view the 14/1 victory of Seventh Heaven with at least some positivity.