'Our entire year is all about Sizing John regaining that Gold Cup crown'

September is upon us and the shades of autumn will soon become more visible, with the evenings drawing shorter, students returning to school and the mighty band of jump warriors we have come to know and love preparing to do battle for another season.

It's been a summer full of vivid colour for the Jessica Harrington stable, but the double blue-and-white-capped colours of Alpha Centauri will soon make way at the Commonstown conveyor belt of talent for the green, yellow and red of Sizing John – colours that turned to gold at Cheltenham in 2017.

If Sizing John were to have a report card for his first season with Harrington it would surely have been that of a model student.

Sizing John and Robbie Power race for the line in the 2017 Cheltenham Gold CupCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

He was top of the class with straight As for his triple Gold Cup-winning heroics, although his teacher would probably have noted that no longer being paired up for assignments with Douvan, who has had his measure seven times, helped to improve his classroom performance.The early signs for last term were that the fire burned brighter than ever in the Midnight Legend gelding.

Harrington wisely sidestepped Bristol De Mai's 57-length Betfair Chase procession on heavy ground at Haydock and instead allowed Sizing John to teach Djakadam a lesson at Punchestown, producing an almost flawless performance in the John Durkan Memorial Chase two weeks later.