Being shoved aside and forced to improvise proves a blessing for You Got To Me

When it's dry ground at the Curragh, racing on the pace is not usually a bad idea and we can all think of front-runners there who just kept going. But Saturday's Irish Oaks didn't turn out like that at all, with the winner, runner-up and fourth having all been in the back half of the field as late as the three-furlong pole.

Rubies Are Red, who made a late charge into second place in the Lingfield Oaks Trial a couple of months ago, was a leading fancy for Epsom after that but reached the Curragh as a 40-1 shot to be sacrificed as a pacemaker. Her stablemate Port Fairy kept close tabs on her on Saturday but it looks like they overdid it, as they finished last and second-last.

This was one of those occasions when being forced to improvise proved a blessing. The plan for eventual winner You Got To Me had been to race prominently, as she had done when winning the Lingfield race, but she got shoved aside in the opening seconds as Rubies Are Red made a heedless dash for the front.