HOW different we are from just a year ago. One year ago next week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was sat with his Highness the Aga Khan officially opening the new Curragh and naming the new stand. All those things we huffed and puffed and wrote reams about seem so trival now. An ill wind blowing through the stand?

On the track we saw the debuts of two of our top two-year-olds in Siskin and Albigna. Both owned by two of racing’s most influential and international owners.