IT’S been a tough year for Roger Varian, losing the horses of two major patrons in the shape of AMO Racing and Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum. Both owners have a reputation for moving their horses, with AMO’s Kia Joorabchian ruthless with trainers and jockeys who he feels aren’t delivering the goods, while the Sheikh moved his horses to Varian in the first instance after a shock split from Luca Cumani.

Andrew Balding and Simon and Ed Crisford are others who have fallen out of favour with Sheikh Mohammed Obaid in recent times, and the owner’s uncompromising attitude has much to do with that. “I am military,” he said in an interview some years ago. “If I give someone an order, he has to take my order. I am not going to listen to a trainer giving me an order.”