I'll remember the Free Handicap very fondly - but I won't lament its loss

If you're anything like me, you'll remember races from the period you first got into racing with not just great fondness but also the kind of clarity it's impossible to find with races that took place only this year.

I can't remember the last time I backed the 2,000 Guineas winner, for example. I'm sure I have backed one in the last 30 years and I have an inkling I might have had a few quid on Kameko in lockdown, but I'd have to go through my account history to be certain.

But I can remember backing Mystiko to win the race in 1991 like it was yesterday. Clive Brittain's three-year-old had caught my eye when a brilliant winner of the European Free Handicap at Newmarket and duly did the business back there in the Guineas when pipping Lycius.