ONE of the highlights of the latest season has been the impact made by the distaff side in the major races, with Arabian Queen providing one of the great shocks of modern times by beating Golden Horn in the International Stakes at York – a result which is even more difficult to fathom in retrospect than it was at the time.

The same meeting saw a vintage Nunthorpe battle between Mecca’s Angel and the freakish juvenile Acapulco, with the Michael Dods-trained mare winning in scintillating style after Acapulco had apparently put the race to bed with searing early pace.