Desert Crown! Luxembourg! Vadeni! Get ready for some heavyweight clashes among a golden generation of older horses

The first green shoots of the Flat season should rightly be about discovery, and dominated by the search for an order among the three-year-olds emerging from winter quarters ahead of a dash for Classic glory.

It is the annual rite of spring that rarely disappoints and, in its own way, is what gives Flat racing a distinctive flavour when compared to its jumping brother. The returning heroes at four and five provide a certain amount of comfort and continuity but they are usually the supporting cast. 

I spoke to Andre Fabre on the way out of Saint-Cloud racecourse a few years ago on the subject of weight-for-age, and whether older horses were unfairly penalised in races like the Arc. His succinct reply ran along these lines: the best horses are often retired at the end of their three-year-old season, meaning the standard-bearers for any given generation thereafter were mostly second tier.