Unique challenges overcome in a year of brilliance and bafflement

At the new millennium's dawn little did we know that Big Brother's debut on British television was a dry run that would be inflicted on the entire nation 20 years later.

Words such as lockdown and isolation, staple language inside the Big Brother house, would become part of our everyday vocabulary. Like so much affected by Covid-19, racing was not immune.

The sport shut down in Britain on March 18, prompting any number of spread-betting opportunities on its resumption. As the weeks came and went, trainers with Guineas horses fretted through the interregnum, unsure of when to gallop them.