STRANGE that Many Clouds was rated the best staying chaser in training last season. Strange that he was rated higher than Sizing John.

Not that Many Clouds was not a top-class staying chaser. Of course he was. And not that his untimely demise in the immediate aftermath of what were probably his finest six and a half minutes was not up there with the saddest equine stories of recent times. It was. It was desperate to lose him. But was he really 2lb superior to Sizing John?