'It's just the feeling he gives you, it's some adrenaline rush - I've never sat on one as good as him before'

First, the handshake; on to the usual pleasantries about the weather; then the coffee order – mocha for him, cappuccino for me; a quick spin through the logistics of his new job with Juddmonte; and then we're there. It took less than four minutes to get to where you all wanted me to go. 

"I knew he was good from his Curragh run, but I thought he was awesome at Ascot. It was a whole different level altogether," Colin Keane says of Field Of Gold, the giant grey colt who has the 2025 Flat season at his feet at the moment. 

The fuse to the firework was lit passing the two-furlong pole in the St James's Palace Stakes last month.