MSTISLAV Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor, was renowned not only as one of the great instrumentalists of the 20th century, but also as an outspoken champion of artistic freedom in the Soviet Union during the last decades of the Cold War. He died soon after his 80th birthday in Moscow. That was just a decade ago.

His memory is recalled now as a two-year-old named after the great man is one of the improvers in the stables at Ballydoyle, and last weekend won the Group 2 Galileo Irish EBF Futurity Stakes at the Curragh. In the year of the musician’s death New Approach won this race and the winners since have included Cape Blanco, Dragon Pulse, Gleneagles and Churchill. So the bar is set high now for Rostropovich.