The day Irish pride was dented at hands of British stewards

Mouse Morris still has a collection of correspondence sent to him in the wake of the disqualification of Cahervillahow – or, to give it its full name, the “controversial disqualification of Cahervillahow”, for the incident is never mentioned without the prefix – from the 1991 Whitbread Gold Cup.

Pride of place among them goes to a letter from the great Dr Vincent O’Brien and his wife, which reads thus: “Congratulations from both of us on the magnificent race that Cahervillahow ran last Saturday. Vincent was adamant that the jockey on Docklands Express never stopped riding. He felt you should never have lost the race.”

Some of the messages go further, suggesting a home-town decision in which the dark forces of English racing conspired against the Irish, but an unequivocal pledge of allegiance from the greatest trainer of all time would be enough to satisfy most men that they were the moral victors in a race that still provokes strong feelings fully a quarter of a century down the line.