DOUG O’Neill puts his arm around a reporter, invites them for dinner and drinks after the races and quotes friends, cab drivers and the blues singer from the night before.

The Californian has collected an entourage and a following, all with the same next-door neighbour style. He believes and repeats the one-question-one-statement mantra, “Why not us? Why not us.” He trains horses like an agent for a rock band, loose, laughing, shirt tail flowing, fedora cocked to one side like a wink and a nod. Results follow. And follow. And follow.

Graham Motion quietly ponders the question, he’s most likely pondering a horse but he’ll make you believe it’s the question before he answers in a quiet, almost apologetic voice. When he’s winning, life is good. When he’s losing, nobody has ever had worse luck, the skid will never end. When he breaks a losing streak, he goes to his go-to line, “Back in the game.” The British-born trainer presents an outward calm while churning inside, a horseman at the core.

John Shirreffs squints and smiles and waits and waits when asked a question about a horse. Well, a good question. A bad question, he simply ignores. He studies his horse’s hooves like a safecracker studies a combination, standing over the blacksmith, watching every hammer stroke. He checks feed tubs like he can return any unused oats. He trains horses like a graffiti artist paints, finding nooks and crannies in the confined, cage-like American racetracks to offer his horses solace and solitude.

He once put long reins on a recalcitrant horse and drove him around the Hollywood Park training track from a golf cart. It worked, the horse came back and won stakes. He’s old school but tech savvy, laid back but fine tuned – an original.

All three have won the Kentucky Derby. And all three are back this year after winning stakes last weekend.