THE season really all begins at Newmarket with the 2000 Guineas, which was missing ante-post favourite Too Darn Hot, and fell to Aidan O’Brien’s Vertem Futurity winner Magna Grecia.

O’Brien came within a whisker of winning the first four classics, only for Pink Dogwood to be worn down close home in the Oaks by John Gosden’s Anapurna under a daring and inspired ride by Frankie Dettori. Ryan Moore would get heartily sick of the sight of the veteran Italian’s backside by the end of the summer.