IF you had told the founding fathers of the modern sport that we would have cards with over 50% of the runners actually ‘square’ trotters, and indeed over 40 French-bred three-year-olds racing on a regular basis, they wouldn’t have believed it. Such is the distance we have come in recent years.

IHRA chairman Mark Flanagan and those who helped him bring the pipedream to fruition deserve a lot of credit.