The charismatic model thoroughbred who kept us guessing right to the end

He is the ultimate modern-day paradox: a horse possessed of every conceivable thoroughbred virtue, yet one whose transition to the stallion ranks will be fraught with difficulty.

Stradivarius now follows the path trodden by Yeats, a four-time Gold Cup winner who quietly joined the National Hunt ranks after starting out as a Flat sire. Like Yeats, Stradivarius will find it hard to sire a horse in his image unless breeders’ attitudes change.

More is the pity, for what an image Stradivarius conjured in his pomp. Prancing round the paddock, which he thought he owned; keen in his races, which he invariably dominated; and proud in the winner’s circle, which he graced with remarkable consistency. He will be sorely missed, not least by staff at John Gosden’s stable, who he amused by his demeanour from the day he arrived seven years ago.