Top three in Melbourne Cup - Our golden age

It must be hoped, for the sake of politeness at least, that Australian minister for consumer affairs Marlene Kairouz, who apologised last week for suggesting that anyone with an Irish accent calling to a home in Melbourne should be turned away, did not allow her bias get in the way of backing Irish runners in the Melbourne Cup.

Had she done so she could have enjoyed a bonanza — Irish trainers, with 10 horses in the race, filled the first three places.

Giving a glimpse of what the future might look like — and what a world racing empire is — 24-year-old Joseph O’Brien trained the winner Rekindling to beat Johannes Vermeer, trained by his father Aidan. Willie Mullins’s Max Dynamite filled third place.

That this wonderful achievement came just days after Aidan O’Brien set a world record for the number of Group and Grade 1 winners trained on the Flat in a calendar year underlines, as if that was needed, that we are indeed in a golden age for Irish racing and bloodstock.

Ireland can be proud of these achievements.