IT may be a sign of my age, but I’ve been slightly baffled by a number of comments I’ve head recently regarding Triumph Hurdle favourite Sir Erec, and how it must be almost unheard of for an entire colt to be racing over hurdles.

Sure, it’s the norm for racehorses who don’t appeal as stallion prospects to be cut fairly early, but what appeals as a flat sire is not the same as what breeders would look for in National Hunt stock. In days of yore, where stallions didn’t cover huge books of mares, there tended to be a more clearly defined ideal of the archetypal National Hunt stallion.