I have never done it before. I doubt I will ever do it again. I hope I might. But I have seen many 2000 Guineas fields stream towards me up the Rowley Mile, and this was the only time. So far. The only time that I have found myself applauding the winner fully two furlongs from home. Two long furlongs to run. So many dreams have been torn asunder in that final run to the line from the famous “Bushes”. But not this day. A balmy spring afternoon in 2011. Tom Queally in the famous Abdullah Pink and Green. Motionless. Those in his wake pushing and shoving and disbelieving.

A quality field strung out like selling chasers on a muddy February afternoon in Sedgefield. At the two pole, I started clapping. With my wife Candida and Brough Scott, we were close by the big screen on the inside of the course. I kept glancing up at the screen to confirm what I thought I was seeing through my binoculars waswhat I was seeing through my binoculars. Remarkable. A “we were there” moment. As the mighty horse passed us at the furlong pole, the race was won. The legs might have been tiring, but the stride was still long and imperious. The crack and shove and push and cry of those behind in vain pursuit.