'I was afraid we'd be tailed off and make a holy show of ourselves' - Willie Mullins announces himself to US racing

Extraordinary. Think Rory McIlroy winning the French Open, but on clay at Roland Garros. Or maybe Michael Jordan winning the Super Bowl. Luke Littler clearing up at the Crucible, or Joe Root touching down for a try in the Six Nations. 

This wasn't his game and he had never even played here before. Del Mar is where the turf meets the surf, not where the jumps meet the Flat. It seemed incongruous to even see him here with the first Grade 1 staying chase of the domestic season taking place on the same day at Down Royal. Yet, on a sticky Saturday in southern California, William Peter Mullins told the world what we all knew already – he can moonwalk on water. 

Nothing is impossible when it comes to the Closutton conjuror, not even winning a Breeders' Cup Turf for the ages with a five-year-old gelding who had finished fourth in the County Hurdle and seventh in the Scottish Champion Hurdle this year.