Hogan believes more chapters still to be written in Gordon Lord Byron story

Connections of Gordon Lord Byron have already made a movie about the gelding’s unlikely rise from an unsold pinhooking project to triple Group 1 winner, and although they will never be short of a story to tell in years to come, Tom Hogan believes the ink is still wet after he finished a fine second in a Group 3 at York on Saturday.

It says something about the status in which Gordon Lord Byron is held in Hogan’s stables that he’s known simply as ‘the horse,’ who according to his trainer can do most things bar speak.

Gordon Lord Byron has taken Hogan, the Cahalan family and more recently Dr Cyrus Poonawalla all around the world, and fresh from running Expert Eye, seven years his junior, so close at York, connections of this great racehorse could be off on their travels again.

Hogan said about the ten-year-old: ”Gordon proves there’s truth in something my father used to say when I was younger. He’d say, ‘You can own 10,000 cattle and nobody will know who you are but if you come across one good horse, the world will know you,’ and it’s true. He’s taken me around the world and back.

“We took him to Doha in the spring and please God we’ll be back there next year as well. You’d never know, if I can improve him another few pounds we might even get an invite to Hong Kong.”

He added on future plans: “It’s probably a little bit unfortunate that we don’t have him in a Group 1 somewhere as he’s well capable of running at the highest level still.

“He’s in the Renaissance Stakes there at the Curragh and there are plenty of other options. Once we get good ground and a fast gallop he’ll always be competitive.”

When horses as well known as Gordon Lord Byron reach the twilight of their careers, there can be added pressure on trainers to pull the plug as soon as the light starts to fade, but Hogan remains confident that the spark within his stable star burns as bright as ever.

Read Gordon Lord Byron's form

He said: “He’s getting very good care and we pander to his needs. He gets physio once or twice a week and you’d have to say he gets better attention than the vast majority of horses.

“I wasn’t surprised by how well he ran at the weekend as I knew he was going to run a big race otherwise we wouldn’t have gone there.

“He’s probably five or six pounds below what he was at his peak but that’s it. He’s had a whole load of different problems down through the years and we’ve learned how to deal with them. I suppose you could say it’s taken us until now to get it right!

“There are a few more chapters to be written in this book yet. Gordon will tell me when he wants to retire and he hasn’t said anything yet!”

Read The Briefing from 8.30am daily on racingpost.com with all the day's latest going, weather, market moves and non-runner news