Thunderbolts and lightning as Enable serves up a Hollywood epic

If the epic thunderstorm that struck Epsom in the half hour leading up to the start of the Oaks was dramatic foreshadowing of what was to come, it was perfectly apt weather, because Enable and Rhododendron served up a titanic contest in the driving rain that any budding Spielberg would have been proud of.

This was a race awash in drama. In the run-up to it the crowd was, alternately, dashing for cover and gasping in shock as great booms rattled the stands and jagged lightning bolts came firing from the blackening sky. This was, as Enable's trainer John Gosden put it, a scene straight out of Hollywood.

The movie theme continued as the field went to post as Daddys Lil Darling, the filly courageously brought over from America by Kenny McPeek to contest the Classic, was spooked by the storm and took off at terrifying pace, forcing Olivier Peslier to take drastic action as they approached the starting stalls and the fencing beyond.