LADY Carla threw down the gauntlet to the colts when she retained her unbeaten record in the most emphatic style, winning the Vodafone Oaks by nine lengths after being eased by Pat Eddery several yards short of the post, writes Jim McGrath. The daughter of Caerleon relished the fast ground by annihilating her opposition, including the game runner-up Pricket, sent off the 7-4 favourite. The battle that threatened to develop three furlongs out became, instead, a procession. Pricket, who had no answer to the winner's powerful surge of power in the finish, held on for second, with a gap of a length and a half to Mezzogiorno, who ran on well for third.

Camporese made up significant ground from the rear to take fourth. Wafic Said, Lady Carla's owner, later revealed: 'Henry Cecil was more confident about her chances this morning than the rest of us put together.' Syrian-born Said must have been on a lucky roll when he visited Newmarket sales ring in 1994. He purchased Bosra Sham for 530,000 guineas - the highest price paid anywhere in the world for a filly that year - and also Lady Carla for 220,000 guineas. Lady Carla won the Oaks with such authority that it seems a logical step for her to take on the colts in the Budweiser Irish Derby.

She certainly has the galloping ability and physical strength to give a good account of herself, but neither Said nor Cecil was being rushed into a decision.