A world where Honeysuckle is beatable is a strange sort of place to be living in

Finally, we found out she is actually human, or equine rather. It took more than four years and 17 races, but on a dark and dreary December afternoon the rather depressing reality that Honeysuckle is not the mare she used to be started to sink in.

There are those who will say she wasn't that good anyway; those who will argue we elevated her to an echelon of the sport her CV didn't deserve; those who will point to the fact that some of the horses she has been beating over the years were not world-beaters; and, of course, those who will claim the 7lb mares' allowance has got her to where she is.

A deflating defeat in the Bar One Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle adds fuel to all of those arguments but, members of the jury, this I'm afraid was not the real Honeysuckle. It was a tribute act who couldn't hit the high notes when Teahupoo and Klassical Dream arrived on the stage. Do not judge her legacy on one individual display, judge her on the 16 performances that preceded this. Her longevity deserves a lot more love than it has been getting of late.