CAN Galway lay claim now to be the starting point for champions on the flat? Kyprios won there on his debut, and in the race won two years earlier by the Group 1 Irish Derby winner Sovereign.

The racing careers of both colts took very different orbits if you measure them by success, the Moyglare Stud-bred and part-owned Kyprios (Galileo) is now the winner of all but two of his 10 starts, and his unbeaten Group 1 sequence now comprises the Ascot Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup, Irish St Leger and the Prix du Cadran. One must wonder how close he would have gone in the Arc – but that will be forever a mystery.