Murtagh now stands at the very top of his profession

A colleague asked me last Friday if I thought Kieren Fallon or Johnny Murtagh was the better jockey.

There could only be one response to that - Murtagh. If you were talking about Fallon at his best then it would simply be a toss of a coin.

But the Fallon we saw riding in Ireland last season, deprived of plying his trade in Britain and tormented by demons, and the Murtagh who was in action at Royal Ascot last week could only be described as poles apart.