Top award for Quiet Reflection but Minding is best filly

She beat Limato, Mecca’s Angel and The Tin Man – all champions in their own right – to scoop the hotly-contested title at the 2016 Cartier Racing Awards.

Owned by the Ontoawinner syndicate, trained by Leyburn’s Karl Burke and ridden by North Yorkshire’s Dougie Costello, the three-year-old won the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot before sluicing through the mud in early September to land Haydock’s Sprint Cup.

Excitingly, the three-year-old – whose gallops work is undertaken by young jockey Jordan Vaughan – will stay in training next year.

However, Quiet Reflection lost on the filly of the year title to Aidan O’Brien’s Minding who also took the horse of the year accolade for her versatility over a range of distances. Her high-profile victories included the 1000 Guineas, Epsom Oaks and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

Ballydoyle-based O’Brien also received the Award of Merit in recognition of his 22 Group One winners this season, a remarkable return by his own exemplary standards.

Meanwhile, High Eldwick trainer Sue Smith’s veteran Cloudy Too – winner of Haydock’s Peter Marsh Chase in December last year – makes his comeback at Bangor today.

As the National Hunt season clicks into gear, Malton’s Malcolm Jefferson has entered Cloudy Dream – runner-up in last season’s Scottish Champion Hurdle – in the Racing Post Arkle Trophy Trial Novices Chase at Cheltenham on Sunday. It follows the exciting horse’s winning chase debut at Carlisle.

Henry Brooke’s inspirational comeback: Page 11