This was his Cape Canaveral moment - his point of liftoff

Kauto Star's achievements are so vivid in the memory that you can still almost smell them – like that first cut of grass or a fresh coat of paint.

So it seems a touch surprising that he is now moving into the territory of anniversaries, and this weekend it is ten years since he embarked on his magnificently unblemished 2006-7 season with victory in Aintree’s Old Roan Chase.

And back then Kauto Star was very much a diamond in the rough like those still dormant gems lying in some massive safe in a discreet Antwerp office awaiting its full potential to be revealed by the skill of some long-practised cutter.