State Man looks Constitution Hill's chief threat - but can Sharjah thwart him?

By the end of the week we will have completed another circumnavigation of the sun. There is no stalling the passage of time, and life's inexorable motion means fresh blood inevitably emerges to challenge the established hierarchy.

That is something with which the Honeysuckle camp has already been confronted. Before the reigning dual champion hurdler's impeccable sheen was scuffed in the Hatton's Grace Hurdle, Constitution Hill had rolled his tanks on to her lawn and demanded our full attention.

Honeysuckle had been a beacon of superlative reliability but it was the shiny new upstart who was turning heads. That's the nature of sport.