There was an unprecedented case of mistaken identity at Yarmouth on Thursday when the winner of the opening two-year-old contest turned out to be a three-year-old which was due to run in a later race on the card.

The mistake only came to light when Mandarin Princess the 50-1 ‘winner’ of the novice auction stakes, who had beaten the well-backed 6-4 favourite Fyre Cay a neck in a bunch finish, was scanned after being sent for a post-race urine sample.

It turned out she was not the two-year-old Mandarin Princess at all but, rather, her three-year-old stable companion Millie’s Kiss. Both horses, handled by the highly respected Charlie McBride, who has worked his way up from headlad to Newmarket trainer, are bay fillies.

However, because the identity of the horses only came to light after the official ‘weighed in’ the bookmakers paid out on the original result. Indeed, although she will be thrown out in due course, if you look up the result Mandarin Princess ridden by John Egan is still the winner even though she did not even run in the race.