James Burn

For all that the extraordinary Aidan O’Brien has accomplished, some say he has never trained a truly great flat horse, but could that change when Constitution River lines up at York this month? When it comes to O’Brien, whose legendary hurdler Istabraq was an undisputed jumps champion, there is a danger his best horses, to some degree, blur into one, but that’s probably because he’s trained so many. Officially, Hawk Wing, with a rating of 133, is the finest he has had through his hands with...

Not so long ago those words would have sounded crazy as racing set about crowning potentially the greatest hurdler the sport has ever known. Blessed with a bombproof temperament, he also had the engine of a jumbo jet and appeared flawless, just like flat racing’s greatest, Frankel. Ground conditions were never a problem for Michael Buckley’s superstar, who put meat on the bones by destroying the 2022 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle field at the Cheltenham Festival, drawing a whopping 22 lengths clear...