McNally's exploits should be celebrated in a world obsessed with sanitising life

At a time when horseracing is one of those pursuits that seems to be constantly defending its ethical validity, the victory of 16-year-old See Double You at Roscommon on Tuesday night felt like a little tonic for the soul.

We exist now in a world preoccupied with sanitising every waking moment of our lives, and racing is pretty typical in that sense.

Some will tell you the welfare tide began to turn irrevocably when the decision whether or not to remount a horse was taken away from the jockey a decade ago, and one of the authorities’ latest impositions has been to remove a trainer’s right to judge whether a horse is in a fit state to run twice at the Cheltenham Festival.