THREE deaths of horses were announced this week, the stallion Pastorius, the successful but frustrating broodmare, Pearling, and the former top-class chaser, Kicking King. All were great losses to connections in different ways, and all will leave their mark.

Spending much of his retirement at the Irish National Stud, Kicking King was an immensely popular and successful racehorse, and it was appropriate that he lived out his days in comfort, and not far from his birthplace, Michael and Sheelagh Hickey’s Sunnyhill Stud in Kilcullen. He will continue to exert an influence there as he appears in many of their pedigrees.