IT was not wholly surprising, but it was still with a not insignificant degree of regret, that the news was received on Wednesday that Don Cossack would not race again.

It was probably always a shade of odds against that the Gigginstown House horse would get back to the racetrack, and it was always relatively long odds that he would have got back to the level at which he was when he won the Gold Cup last March. It is still disappointing though, it is still sad. You could hear the disappointment in Eddie O’Leary’s voice on Game On on Wednesday evening when he said that it was just this week that he started to be optimistic about the prospect of getting their latest Gold Cup winner back.