SWANSDOWN came up just short in the nine-and-a-half-furlong nursery at Wolverhampton on Thursday, which was disappointing for the people who had backed her from morning prices of 4/1 to an SP of 5/6. The defeat wouldn’t have registered on many radars were it not for the fact that Swansdown was Luca Cumani’s final runner as a trainer.

Luca Cumani was in his pomp during the formative racing years for many of us.

In 1983, he won the third ever running of the Arlington Million with Tolomeo, and in 1985 he took Commanche Run over to the Phoenix Park, put Lester Piggott up on him (again), and won the Irish Champion Stakes.

It was the first of many top-level victories that Cumani enjoyed in Ireland. He won the Irish 1000 Guineas in 1989 with Ensconce and in 2002 with Gossamer. He won the Irish Derby in 1988 with Kahyasi. He won the Irish 2000 Guineas in 1993 with Barathea.

The Newmarket-based Italian always looked far beyond international boundaries. In 1994, he won the Breeders’ Cup Mile with Barathea, who remained the last British-trained winner of the race before Expert Eye won it three weeks ago.

In 2005, he won the Japan Cup with Alkaased. In 2003, he won the Hong Kong Cup with Falbrav.

Falbrav was one of Cumani’s flagship horses. It is remarkable to think that, given all he achieved with him, Cumani only had Falbrav for a year. During that year, 2003, the Fairy King horse won the Prix d’Ispahan, the Eclipse, the Juddmonte International, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, and the aforementioned Hong Kong Cup.

And he was beaten a neck by High Chaparral in the Irish Champion Stakes, and head by the same High Chaparral (and Johar) in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Cumani excelled on the British scene too. He won the Derby in 1988 with Kahyasi and in 1998 with High-Rise, he won the Lockinge Stakes and the Queen Anne in 1987 with Then Again, he won the Champion Stakes in 1989 with Legal Case, he won the King George in 2015 with Postponed.

His wins at the highest level span four decades.

In one sense, it was not significant that Swansdown got beaten on Thursday. As Cumani himself pointed out beforehand, he has trained over 2,000 winners. One more or one less wasn’t going to make that much of a difference. Win or lose, she brought the curtain down on a remarkable training career. She could have been named Swansong.