THE world may be on the brink of Armageddon and there is plenty about which to be worried even if it is not, but the microcosm that is horse racing continues to provide a welcome refuge from wider reality, and sometimes gives the impression of never having been better.

In the space of just 48 hours last weekend racing fans witnessed the best sprinting performance in this part of the world in over a decade, the fastest two-year-old on the planet so far this year, the best timefigure by a juvenile in Britain and Ireland to date in 2017 and the best effort on the clock of what is admittedly a low-key jumps season so far.