AROUND this time four years ago, the week after the curtain had come down on the Cheltenham Festival, Aidan O’Brien hosted a press event to mark the launch of the Irish flat season.

During the morning, those in attendance saw various pieces of technology being used, including heart monitors and GPSs, and the subsequent results, which were also transmitted in real time back to the phones of John Magnier and his fellow Coolmore partners, whatever part of the world they might be in.