It's the end of an era at Nottingham today - now who will train all the improving five-year-olds?

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It's that time of year when tracks around Britain use their race-titles to say cheerio. Redcar's final race yesterday was the 'Thanks And See You Next Season Apprentice Handicap', while today's 3.50pm contest is the 'Goodbye For 2024 From Nottingham Racecourse Handicap'. 

It's well-intentioned but I slightly wish they wouldn't. Combined with the crepuscular gloom that seems to prevail at all hours just now, these messages do somewhat lower the pulse but there's still two months left in the year and we can't all spend that much time in wind-down mode. 

Are staff at Flat-only tracks going to spend the next five months with their feet up, playing Minesweeper? It seems unlikely but that's the picture painted by their valedictory race-titles. I imagine them flicking off the lights, locking the main gate and going home to plan Christmas. 

Anyway, it so happens that 'Goodbye' is the right note to strike for today's final race at Nottingham (3.50), because among the 12 runners is Wanderlust, expected to be the very last runner in the long career of Sir Michael Stoute. He has no other entries in the coming days, so she will certainly be his final runner on turf in Britain, because the season ends on Saturday.

So here it is, the end of an era. We're not just losing a trainer but also a type of racehorse, to wit: the typical Sir Michael Stoute improver. 

Pilsudski was an absolute classic of the genre, somehow getting beat in each of his first four races. When he finally got his head in front, it was in a handicap at the July Meeting from a rating of 82. 

Pilsudski: a typical Sir Michael Stoute improverCredit: Mark Cranham

The following year, by which time he was four, he progressed into Group 3s, chasing home stablemate Singspiel in the Gordon Richards before landing the Brigadier Gerard over the same course and distance. By September, he was reckoned to be ready for a Group 1 but was started in one of the less threatening ones, in Germany.

Having won that, he followed up in the Breeders' Cup Turf (Singspiel second) and then the following year was a riot, bringing success in the Eclipse, the Irish Champion, the Champion Stakes and the Japan Cup. 

He ended up with a prize-money haul of almost £3 million, which was even harder to accumulate in 1997 than it is now. And yet there must be people out there who got 8-1 about him for a Ripon maiden and watched him finish second to Ellie Ardensky. If that was the only time you backed Pilsudski, somebody owes you a hug. 

Still, you should have known well enough to keep following him because he was a typical Sir Michael Stoute improver, like Opera House, Medicean, Saddler's Hall, Conduit, Harbinger, Ulysses, Bay Bridge and a long list of others that you're probably cursing me for not mentioning. 

Why not let the internet do the work? If you put "typical Sir Michael Stoute improver" into that search engine we all use, you get five pages of results. At various times, racing journalists have slapped the label on Autocratic, Mulan, Khairaat, Sangarius, Lights On, Migdam, Fidaawy, Real Dream ... I'm struggling to remember most of these. 

That's because there was always hope, with Stoute. Yes, a horse might have repeatedly proved himself to be short of the required standard, but he'd only been racing for three summers, so there was every chance of better to come. Just watch, he'll be on the plane to Santa Anita or Sha Tin by the year's end. 

Sir Michael Stoute: there was always hope that the best was still to come from a Sir Michael Stoute horseCredit: Alan Crowhurst

We'd seen him perform that kind of magic so many times, it was easy to believe he could do it again, even if the material he was seeking to transform wasn't all that promising. Hard-bitten punters were prepared to believe in miracles. Owners who'd been in the game for decades would be glowing all winter if Sir Michael told them: "Next year, I think he'll really grow into himself." 

Is there another trainer out there who can inspire such belief? I'm starting to think there is such a thing as a typical Owen Burrows improver but that probably remains a minority view for the time being. 

The other reason we sometimes over-estimated Stoute's horses is that he was sparing with the insights he offered the media. He's the man who taught Ryan Moore everything he knows about giving nothing away.

I'm grateful to all trainers who are more forthcoming. Still, one understands why some are cagey. This is a game in which every public pronouncement is a hostage to fortune. 

I remember interviewing Stoute for a pre-Derby feature when Ulysses was running. My hope was that he'd say something sufficiently enthusiastic to make a grabby sort of headline but he wasn't having it - Ulysses had only just won a maiden. 

Ulysses: dual Group 1 winner at four for Sir Michael StouteCredit: Edward Whitaker

One of the quotes I printed in that article, in response to my suggestion that the horse must have a fine chance, was: "Mmmmmm," a rich, baritone rumble signifying that he wouldn't quite put it like that. 

Ulysses was a top-class horse in the making but the first of his Group 1s was a year away and he could finish only 12th at Epsom. 

Decades ago, I stumbled across this bit of praise, about someone else in a very different context: "His doubts are worth more than other people's certainties." That's Sir Michael.

A Google search for "genius racing trainers" would probably show that the sport is well supplied. But however many there may be, we'll have one less tomorrow.

Read this next:

The last dance - Sir Michael Stoute to send his likely final runner out at Nottingham on Wednesday 

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