Frankie Dettori lit up Royal Ascot© Photo Healy Racing
It's ironic how part of the rationale for the new Curragh was as an international showpiece and yet the country's biggest race, this Saturday's Irish Derby, looks like being a distinctly local affair. So local in fact that perhaps the most important runner will be from a couple of miles down the road.
Madhmoon was the only horse to prevent a Michael Dickinson-like first five for Aidan O'Brien at Epsom and once again promises to mount the most potent challenge to Ballydoyle.
It would be a fairytale success for his 86 year old trainer Kevin Prendergast to win Ireland's premier classic for a first time. And given his family's association with both the race and the track such a victory would be a neat link between the Curragh's long history and it's hoped for brave new future.
In competition terms too plenty of fingers are likely to be kept crossed this week that Madhmoon enjoys a trouble-free preparation because the evidence of Epsom and Royal Ascot in particular suggests a significant overseas presence is unlikely.
If a number of British hopes simply failed to fire at Epsom no such excuses looked available at Ascot in the King Edward VII Stakes where O'Brien's Japan put up a notably eye-catching performance.
At one stage Ryan Moore looked like mounting his challenge up the Ascot high street he was so wide. In contrast Bangkok enjoyed a perfect split up the inner. Yet the Derby third wound up winning easily, after which all signals suggest he's going nowhere near the Curragh this week.
Instead Anthony Van Dyck will bid to become the 19th horse to complete the Epsom-Curragh Derby double.
Many will believe his main threat will be his stable companion Broome, just over a half a length behind at Epsom in a performance that suggested the Curragh may suit better. Ryan Moore is set to try and win a first Irish Derby - and complete his collection of English and Irish classics - on Anthony Van Dyck. But he's been on the 'wrong one' more than once already this season.
In contrast to Moore, O'Brien is looking for a Lucky 13th Irish Derby victory. His previous dozen have come in just 21 years. It is surely the most astonishing dominance of any major classic that the racing world has seen. The nearest to it in modern times is his own 11 wins in the Irish 2,000 Guineas.
Sometimes it's dangerous to over-think such things and the record books will forever state that Anthony Van Dyck was the best horse at Epsom just over three weeks ago.
But quite a lot went wrong for Broome. He missed the kick, was marooned at the back and forced to come wide before making a dramatic move around Tattenham Corner. Yet he stayed on notably well and the Curragh's less idiosyncratic challenge might provide a different outcome for the all-dominant O'Brien.
This Saturday's classic date is the Curragh's most significant of the whole year and the ultimate justification for its €81 million redevelopment. It's only four years since the Derby attracted an official attendance of more than 25,000. One would imagine curiosity value alone should encourage a significant crowd to a venue designed to comfortably cater for up to 30,000.
The Derby comes on the back of another Royal Ascot that proved how remarkable a figure Frankie Dettori continues to cut.
There's so much surface showbiz about Dettori that sometimes the ruthless professional within gets overlooked. But a first leading rider award at Royal Ascot in 15 years, including that 449-1 four-timer on Thursday, was just more proof of how spectacular he can be when confidence gets added to that professional mix.
The Italian is surely as gifted a natural talent as the old game has seen in the saddle and in terms of public profile for racing overall he is priceless. Mark Johnston's suggestion that Dettori might even supersede Lester Piggott as the greatest didn't even sound too outrageous although it had some 'Long Fellow' fans spluttering into their champagne.
Both after all are among that rare body of sportspeople immediately identifiable to most everyone by just their forename. Both generate huge affection despite taking polar opposite approaches to the public. An exuberant Frankie thrives on attention, even feeds on it. Lester's gunslinger appeal was rooted in so obviously not giving a fliers what anyone thought of him.
Dettori's popular appeal is a godsend for the sport. But in terms of overall impact on a sport, and the very nature of his profession, Piggott surely remains the most towering figure. He fundamentally changed the nature of what a top jockey was and represented. Only a rare group of sportspeople can claim that and Dettori is one of many feeling the benefits.
Hayley Turner's achievement in becoming just the second woman to ride a winner at Royal Ascot, and the first in 32 years, was rightly lauded as a significant moment. Turner herself appeared almost to want to play down the gender angle which is to her credit in many ways. Her own career is that of an accomplished and successful professional regardless of sex.
What got mostly overlooked in the aftermath of Thanks Be's Sandringham win however had nothing to do with a pioneering moment but was still the latest illogical example of racing's regulations falling down on the job.
Turner got a nine day ban for her use of the whip on Thanks Be. She broke the rules and still won. And the problem is that given the significance of the victory the stewards could have given her 30 days and Turner would probably have still taken it. That only proves once again how feeble the penalties are if the reward is big enough.
A final Royal Ascot point concerns the hysterical narrative generated by bookmaker firms on the back of Dettori's four-timer. Suggestions that these corporations only just avoided financial Armageddon got faithfully and widely reproduced as news. Fast forward to the end of the meeting and somehow those bookmakers emerged ahead on the week.
The betting angle is intrinsic to many racing stories. It can be helpful to tie disparate elements into a shorthand SP ribbon with bookmakers supposedly millions out of pocket. But there's a PR industry employed in regurgitating this stuff and much of it is simply fake news. Even worse, it's boring fake news.
As for the decision by some online firms, notably Bet 365, to refuse multiple bets on Dettori after his Thursday heroics, little can be said bar that any resemblance to actual bookmakers, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any of these corporate whales unwilling to take bets that are usually the very plankton on which they feast are simply an embarrassment to their industry.
Finally, sad news from California of a 30th equine fatality at Santa Anita, and that leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has been banned by the track's owners, is hardly encouraging for the long term future of the sport in general in the US.
The current season is finished but from every sort of perspective there are worrying implications in all this for the Breeders Cup which is due back at Santa Anita in November. The prospect of US racing holding its shop-window event in a facility operating under such a welfare cloud is one to provoke more than a little trepidation.
