No fairytale ending on Milord Thomas but Jacques Ricou still bows out a winner

The end will come at a low key meeting here next Friday but Jacques Ricou was given a hero's send off by weighing room colleagues and the wider racing world at the end of his final big Sunday meeting at Auteuil.

There was no final hurrah aboard his five-time Grade 1-winning ally Milord Thomas, who finished a gallant fourth in the Prix Georges Courtois behind Srelighonn.

But ahead of the final race on the card – renamed the Prix Merci Jacques Ricou, the parade ring rang with cheers and applause as the 38-year-old made his way through an honour guard of jockeys.