IT has been observed that all you need in order for a bet to be struck is for two parties to have opposing views. That is seldom a problem in the world of horseracing, in which one person’s ‘white’ is almost inevitably another person’s ‘black’.

It was, however, difficult in the aftermath of this season’s King George VI Chase at Kempton to find anyone in the mainstream or social media who differed significantly from the view that the winner, Thistlecrack, had proved himself such a brilliant chaser that all he had to do was avoid mishap to add the Cheltenham Gold Cup to his haul in March.