THERE can never be another Richard Hannon senior - (“forgotten more than I’ll ever know, simple as that” - Mick Channon), and will go out of his way to shoot the breeze with some old acquaintance minutes before a big race.

However, his son has made a splendid start, winning the 2000 Guineas with Night Of Thunder and taking the trainers’ title with something to spare.

Nothing much changes at East Everleigh; a steady stream of two-year-olds get off the mark, the stable is lethal in listed and minor group races at seven furlongs and a mile and then, now and again, a Night Of Thunder turns up.

On their running in the Greenham, Night Of Thunder should not have beaten Kingman in the Guineas but he received a canny, powerful ride from Kieren Fallon.

Things did not work out for Fallon afterwards, with Godolphin gradually easing out of a loose arrangement and other top yards giving him few opportunities. In the end he was happy enough to go to America, a perpetual loner for whom the dictum ‘never complain, never explain’ might have been invented.

Richard Hughes chose wrongly in the Guineas but went on to claim his third title, overhauling Ryan Moore as the former champion made it clear that top prizes around the world mattered most.