No surprise Frankel took the top spot in the best 25 Flat horses of the century - but it was hard to split him and Sea The Stars

I can’t have been alone in thinking last week’s series on the best of the first 25 years of the century made for riveting reading. Nostalgia is a welcome indulgence at Christmas, and plenty of it emanated from the memories the series revived.

The 25 Greatest Jumpers confirmed the monopolistic nature of the code. Just three trainers were responsible for 15 of the top 23 jumpers with a Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 179-plus, although given Ireland’s dominance, it’s surprising that Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls matched Willie Mullins with five apiece. Equally surprising was that Britain held sway over Ireland by 14-9.

The series opened with a feature highlighting how much has changed in the last quarter century, yet one topic confirmed that racing’s penchant for generating abject headlines is robustly intact. The 10 Most Shocking News Stories embraced three champion jockeys busted for cocaine, one case of widespread race-fixing and two high-profile instances of doping horses. Plus ca change there.