ONLY A short head separated the favourite Moonstone from a 66 to 1 upset in yesterday's Darley Irish Oaks, but Aidan O'Brien's remarkable domination of Ireland's classic races is emphasised by the fact that the runner-up, Ice Queen, is also trained by him.
Certainly on its own merits yesterday's feature was a jewel of a finish, with Johnny Murtagh somehow forcing Moonstone ahead of her Colm O'Donoghue-ridden stable companion on the line. But there's no question it pales into an overall picture that contains enough layers to boggle even the most statistically minded.
This was a seventh Irish classic in a row for O'Brien and the fourth leg of a 2008 rout that has left bookmakers going just 1 to 4 about a first clean sweep in a calendar year of this country's classics since 1935.
There was also the not insubstantial matter of Moonstone becoming the 13th Group One winner of what is already a vintage year for O'Brien throughout Europe.
And on top of all that is the spectre of a world record tally of top-flight races if the champion trainer ends 2008 with more than Bobby Frankel's 25 in 2003.
Overall it represents a level of dominance unmatched even in the halcyon days of Vincent O'Brien, and leaves no doubt about who was the centre of attention in yesterday's winner's enclosure - and it wasn't Moonstone.
O'Brien paid tribute to both Murtagh and O'Donoghue as well as the horses - "two fillies and two jockeys giving their all" - but rarely has September's St Leger received such a focus in July.
Drawing up plans for what has already become known as an "Aidan Slam," the trainer said: "Septimus could run in the Lonsdale at York first, and Yeats might run in the Goodwood Cup. Or we might leave Honolulu go to Goodwood, and its possible Yeats might go straight for the Leger."
Either Septimus or Yeats alone would be good enough to start odds on: together they make that 1 to 4 look almost realistic.
Moonstone became the first maiden to win a classic since Bachelor Duke in 2004's 2,000 Guineas, and is set to continue on her own Group One route in the Yorkshire Oaks.
Her victory yesterday was special to Murtagh, who chose wrong in both the 1,000 Guineas and the Derby, although he wasn't surprised Ice Queen became his big danger.
"She worked well the other morning and I thought she was one to aim at. My filly is still a little green and there's more to come from her," Murtagh said.
If the nod had gone against Moonstone, it's odds on the stewards would have awarded her the race anyway as Ice Queen drifted left in the closing stages. O'Donoghue afterwards got a two-day ban for careless riding.
If there was a surprise yesterday it probably came in the Group Three Anglesey Stakes, where the odds on Ballydoyle hope Westphalia came up two-and-a-half lengths short of David Wachman's Bushranger.
The winner was runner-up in Royal Ascot's Windsor Castle Stakes, but Wachman said: "Circumstances went against him there and he was in front a fair way out. Wayne (Lordan) was very good today and held on to him. This horse has a bit of a future and is in the Phoenix Stakes and the Prix Morny."
Chris Hayes enjoyed a double on board the Dandy Nicholls-trained Masta Plasta, in the Rockingham, and Driving Snow, who got the better of two Ballydoyle newcomers in the seven-furlong maiden.
However, the former champion apprentice endured a nightmare on board Beach Bunny, who got no sort of run in the nine-furlong Listed race behind the Wachman-Lordan representative Navajo Moon.
