Don't despair, Constitution Hill fans - he might now become a glorious throwback to the past

Few sports have racing’s propensity to shred a script. On the day when a Group 1 sprint was supposed to hold us in thrall, a warrior of the winter code had hijacked the public’s attention. He was going to show up those poncy Flat horses in a minor Pattern race on the all-weather.

Just like the Juddmonte International, however, the whole thing was turned on its head. As Constitution Hill came up painfully short in Kempton’s September Stakes, Almeraq announced himself Europe’s best sprinter when winning the Betfair Sprint Cup by more than four lengths.

It was reminiscent of the afternoon of May 2, 1992, when Britain’s finest racing writers headed west to watch Arazi sink without trace in the Kentucky Derby while Rodrigo De Triano, ridden by 56-year-old grandfather Lester Piggott, landed the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. As a grizzled American hack gleefully told crestfallen members of Britain’s fourth estate: “You guys are in the wrong place.”