THERE was a rather half-hearted discussion in the press last Saturday, on the morning of the Darley July Cup at Newmarket, as to whether we were in a “golden age” for sprinters. For someone like me, and presumably like some of my readers, whose formative years were in the last century that seemed a surprising notion.

By Timeform’s reckoning, none of the top half dozen or so British and Irish sprinters in post-War history has come this century: indeed, British and Irish speedsters have often been taught a lesson by horses from elsewhere at the top level in recent years.