THE falls, the injuries, they are part of it. Spells on the sidelines. Thuas seal, thíos seal. Sean Flanagan rode at Cork on the Friday before Galway. He rode Lopito in the second division of the two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle. They were still in contention, they were just coming under pressure as they started to round the home turn, when Lopito stumbled and came down, firing his rider head first into the ground.

As a National Hunt rider, you expect falls. They are in the job description. You don’t expect them when you race around a home turn, but still you are conditioned to react, to brace yourself. The first part of the rider’s body to hit the ground that evening was his head and yet, he wasn’t concussed. He just broke his sternum in two places.