THERE is no race in the big, wide racing world that I have a love/hate relationship with as much as I do to the Arc. It was kind of inherited – a bit like the uncle who had stepped out of line for something before you were born and was never fully welcomed back into the family.

Arkle and Nijinsky were kind of mythical creatures in my early attraction to racing. No personal memory, just the tales and the auras in which they were remembered.