Michael Buckley: 'A Champion Hurdle and a Gold Cup. That would be something special, wouldn't it?'

Poor Michael Buckley has spent the last hour trying to hide Constitution Hill's considerable light under such bushels as can be found in the lounge of a swanky Knightsbridge hotel, and he's done it admirably well. With a couple of doses of caffeine in his system, however, the restraint is beginning to weigh heavy. He pushes his coffee cup to one side, rises from his plush velvet chair, shapes to head for the door, then can't resist a parting shot from the heart.

"Of course, what would be wonderful is if it could be like Jonjo and Dawn Run," he says, briefly allowing fantasy to break cover and skip away from the horrible little demons that run wild in the world of jump racing. "A Champion Hurdle and a Gold Cup. That would be something special, wouldn't it?"

And with that, he's gone, through the revolving door and into the winter sunshine, his heart no doubt racing, his head probably regretting having tempted fate so boldly. Buckley is a man who has been in the game long enough to recognise its reality, but it is to his credit and our benefit that his questing optimism endures.