IT takes a combination of things to see long-standing course records fall, including a superior level of ability from the horse in question, but the most obvious factor is fast ground. The ground was indeed fast at Epsom on Friday and Saturday, and two such records fell on the latter day.

First was Zaaki in the Group 3 Diomed Stakes, in which he ran near-perfect fractions to come from a bit off the pace to beat Oh This Is Us with a 114 timefigure.