The glorious week closes with this fillies and mares Group 1. The race has been robbed a little with the absence of Misty For Me who has been withdrawn due to the good to firm ground.

It leaves a field of six headed by Midday and Snow Fairy. The clash of these mares would ordinarily have been enough to set the pulses racing but the fact that the Misty For Me beat Midday six lengths at the Curragh means we’ve lost that element of intrigue.

Midday’s defeat at the Curragh was due to a lacklustre performance where she just didn’t fire, the reason may simply have been an off day. Her level of consistency up to that especially when pitched against her own sex, has been exemplary. She is a winner of five Group 1’s including this race in the last two years, a Prix Vermille, a Breeders Cup Fillies and Mares and a Yorkshire Oaks. Add that she was only denied a head in the Oaks by Sariska and you get some idea of how good and consistent she has been over the last few years.

Snow Fairy boasts a similar reputation and profile. A year younger than the Henry Cecil mare she has already amassed four Group 1’s. An Epsom and Curragh Oaks last summer encouraged a trip out east where reputation and bank balance were further enhanced with two great performances in the Queen Elisabeth II Commemorative Cup in Kyoto and the Hong Kong Cup in December.

Crystal Capella also joins the line up having been a runaway winner of the Princess Of Wales Stakes at the Newmarket July meeting. She has not won at top level yet but a add pair of Pride Stakes and her Group 2 total comes to three. She’s a six year old with little mileage on the clock and we have yet have to see the best of her.

Field Day, Principle Role and Barefoot Lady make up the backup team with the latter representing the classic generation. Third in the Coronation at Royal Ascot entitles her a place in the line up here. That was an improvement on a good Guineas run cementing the decent impression given as a juvenile. In receipt of weight for age allowance, she’s not without a squeak.

The market is having difficulty dividing the principles and that is easy to understand. When they met over a mile and a half at York last year Midday came out on top. However, although those Oaks wins were over the same trip Snow Fairy displayed a very exciting turn of foot over this 10 furlong trip out east last autumn and this may prove the deciding factor.

December in July, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.