Luca Cumani: 'I was privileged and damned to be in the same era as Michael and Henry'

Luca Cumani has hailed Sir Michael Stoute as one of life's "great thinkers" after the legendary trainer announced this week that this will be his last season with a training licence.

Stoute and Cumani, who retired from training at the end of 2018, were neighbours on the Bury Road in Newmarket for more than 40 years, in which time they became great friends as well as fierce rivals on the racecourse.

Along with Sir Henry Cecil, Stoute and Cumani played starring roles in a golden era for Flat racing in Britain and Cumani was honoured to share the training grounds of Newmarket with arguably the two greatest Flat trainers of their generation.