It will be strange without Poetic Flare - but let's hope he continues to thrive

When Champions Day has attracted three of the planet’s top five racehorses according to the world rankings, it might seem odd to be focusing on one of those missing. But Poetic Flare has left such a mark on the season that Saturday will feel strange without him.

Jim Bolger’s star was retired this week and sent to stand at stud in Japan. He raised the curtain on this year’s British Champions Series with his victory in the 2,000 Guineas and went on to run in six more Group 1s through the summer, adding the St James’s Palace Stakes along the way.

The immediate reaction was disappointment there would be no titanic clash with Palace Pier, Baaeed and co in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Traditionally, when a top-class colt is retired in the autumn of their three-year-old season, there is much lamenting at racing’s failure to keep its brightest stars on the track for longer, and questions over what more he could have achieved – after all, Poetic Flare is now the fifth successive 2,000 Guineas hero to end his career at three.