'I'm sure Barney is having a chuckle to himself, that was absolutely mad'

Greetings from the hill of Crockafotha, these words coming to you from one of those ‘takeout merchants’ the man himself used to be on about.

“I’m coming over to celebrate his life, not to cry. He was a tremendous human being,” Frankie Dettori said of Barney Curley and, true to his word, three days before the Arc, racing’s most famous face was out getting to know Irish racing’s most unusual track ahead of teaming up with Trueba in the big one at 3.05.

The opening nursery was just over and Dettori was trying to walk the track. He met plenty of trouble in-running, though. The first piece of interference arrived just past the furlong pole as a group of groundstaff put their pitchforks down and went seeking a selfie. It wasn’t his first, and it wasn’t to be his last.