IT is remarkable to think that, when Aidan O’Brien sent out Australia to win the Derby last year, he became the first trainer in the history of the most historic race of them all to send out the winner three times in a row.

It’s a long history too, stretching back to that alleged coin-flip between the 12th Earl of Derby and Lord Bunbury. You wonder if that coin was a half-brother to the one that Jonjo O’Neill flipped to determine whether A.P. McCoy would ride Don’t Push It or Can’t Buy Time in the 2010 Grand National.