Football’s World Cup this summer gripped the planet. Given the longevity of India’s Durand Cup, first played for 1888, it’s a wonder that India has yet to qualify for soccer’s finals. Cape Verde, population 500,000 captured hearts with their exploits: India, 1.3 billion, absent. At least Indian fans are spared the ache of defeat, endured by England since winning the Cup on home soil in 1966 – we’ve been vainly singing “Football’s coming home” ever since. Punters like myself didn’t brag about our winning bets on Argentina in the semi-final because we’d have been regarded as traitors. I was on safer ground backing Spain to avenge us in the final, which they duly did..

Blame the England manager: he was the culpable one, falling back on a defensive wall oblivious to the fact such fortifications have failed throughout history. To keep the Germans out in the First World War the French built the ‘impenetrable’ Maginot Line - another defensive miscalculation, the German Army simply walked round it. The Berlin Wall was made of reinforced concrete, but served its purpose for barely twenty five years. England manager Thomas Tuchel’s defensive line couldn’t hold out for the last twenty-five minutes against Argentina.

In China the Ming Dynasty’s Great Wall can be seen from outer space – so the astronauts tell us – but I’ll bet even that great feat of engineering isn’t as obvious as the sclerotic mentality which brought about a defensive retreat from a one goal advantage: that slender lead was never going to withstand an Argentinian blitzkrieg.

Maybe I should have played up my bet on the ‘Argies’, in running, which the England players did – backwards.

A ‘respectable’ World Cup third place in a match that “nobody wanted” (except a capacity crowd) beforehand against the deflated French, was instantly elevated alongside other magnificent, futile, English gestures - the Charge of the Light Brigade and the Siege of Lucknow are two that spring to mind. Another was anticipated in the 65th £2m King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot because foreigners outnumbered eight to one the lone home hope, Andrew Balding’s five year old mare Kalpana (Study of Man-Zero Gravity by Dansili).

The King George, biggest summer clash of the middle distance generations, occurs in the crevice between football seasons. Four Aidan O’Briens for Ireland; two Japanese; two Graffard’s for France including hot favourite Calandagan; and just Kalpana for Andrew Balding, leading home-based trainer for much of this season. Ante-post Kalpana had been ridiculous odds, 12-1, despite finishing a bare length behind odds on Calandagan last year and indeed, ‘in running’ betting a year ago Kalpana had replaced the French gelding as favourite.

Tactics were on everybody’s lips beforehand. The Coolmore squad was expected to try to shape the race. Last year they tried to dictate from the front only to be swept aside. This year their ‘hare’ was Action – but the result was the same. Characteristically Calandagan had bounded back from defeat at Epsom where he has never shone, to come from way back to win the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Gr1). Bred and owned by the late Aga Khan’s Studs, the whole of French racing was behind him – especially since the French have changed their Rules to allow geldings such as Calandagan to run in next year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe - Europe’s middle distance race of champions.

The issue of allowing geldings into Group 1 (Classics excepted) is now almost a done deal and racing has returned to chew over another pet topic – tactics. At Ascot, with Coolmore fielding an English and an Irish Derby winner, Lambourn and Benvenuto Cellini, as well as an Oaks heroine, Minnie Hauk, plus pacemaker Action, the question arose again as whether the practice of pace-making was a) moral and b) permissible under Rules given that Action would not be ‘running on his merit’, sacrificed for his more distinguished stable mates.

To be fair Coolmore houses so many top class horses they are obliged to ‘field’ a pack in the top races. They habitually employ a front runner to ensure there is no ‘dawdle’ which might upset the best laid plans. But though that laudable intention helps (sometimes) ensure the best horse wins, the accusations of races being ‘manipulated’ never goes away.

In the case of this great race the Action set the race up nicely for his distinguished stablemates Lambourn, Benvenuto Cellini and Minnie Hauk: they simply weren’t good enough to respond. Yet even with all these stellar names, and I have pointed out on several occasions, even Calandagan’s rating as the current best horse in the world doesn’t stand up to scrutiny against equine giants of the past – Mill Reef for example 1981 winner of the Derby, King George and the Arc whose great trainer Ian Balding, father of Andrew, died earlier this year.

Kalpana can now head to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October in the knowledge that only two years ago another five-year-old mare, Alpinista, triumphed in the great race.

Sacrificial Action won £26,000 for a distant sixth placing while still finishing too close to the principals to underline this renewal as a below average renewal of the King George. The Japanese challengers once again showed their vulnerability when confronting Europe’s best. Flying over the North Pole rather than risking drones in the Gulf can’t have helped but when Calandagan and their main hope, Masquerade Ball, met in the Japan Cup in Tokyo last November there was only a whisker between them: at Ascot the gap was thirteen lengths. Add another length and a quarter for Kalpana’s victory margin.

At Ascot the finish was a private duel to which Coolmore weren’t invited. Had they been then the debate over tactics would have broken out again. As recently as Royal Ascot former French champion jockey Christophe Soumillon on Coolmore’s Puerto Rico got an eight-day ban for, in effect, saying “after you” to the Irish Leviathan’s stable favourite Gstaad in the St James’s Palace Stakes Gr1. Soumillon had ‘previous’: so too Coolmore. In 2008 Seamus Heffernan on Ivan Denisovich was banned fourteen days under the then ‘team tactics’ rule “H1 Pacemakers” for interfering with Frankie Dettori and Librettist in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. That was back in the days when Godolphin were fighting it out nip and tuck with Coolmore. The Dubai operation is enduring a quiet time.

That same year saw Aidan O'Brien’s trio of runners trail in the Melbourne Cup. Ireland's champion trainer had left Flemington racetrack but was summoned back by the stewards to explain his riding instructions. At one stage his three were six lengths clear before being swallowed up. The use of pacemakers is banned in Australia and the Flemington stewards said they had “grave doubts” about the ride Irish jockey Wayne Lordan (winner of the Derby on Lambourn last year) had given the front-runner, Alessandro Volta. No sanctions were given.

O'Brien insisted all his horses did their best and was quoted in Sydney’s newspaper, The Age, with: “If you are going to penalise me or the lads, that's a nonsense. We have come here in good faith.”

My particular favourite ‘pacemakers’ were Juddmonte’s Qirat 150-1 in last year’s Group One Sussex when the same owner’s odds on favourite Field of Gold was the one with feet of clay. If you have concluded by now that I have an antipathy to pacemakers, you’re mistaken. England’s Robert Bannister wouldn’t have broken the world four-minute mile barrier in 1954 but for the collusion of his two pace-setters.

The Irish Sea has been no barrier of course to the raiders of Ballydoyle, Co Tipperary, for years. And though travelling in an inflatable boat requires no paperwork, if you’re an illegal immigrant, to cross the English Channel from France, Calandagan and Goliath, flying from Chantilly, were both familiar with the short plane hop from Chantilly – and with Ascot having won the last two renewals of the King George. Contrast that with the odyssey undertaken by the Japanese. They are still smarting from their World Cup football exit. Despite scoring first against Brazil they lost to a goal in injury time and independent (I didn’t back them) onlookers thought they were really unlucky. But their World Cup experiences are much the same as that of their racehorses. So far from home; not so near victory.

But the Japanese are nothing if not persistent. In this King George they were nothing. Flying through Alaska to avoid drones and ballistic missiles in the Gulf war zone still perhaps not the smoothest route. The Japanese didn’t appear in the least traumatized and third favourite for the King George Masquerade Ball who has won £4m had only a short head to find on Calandagan compared with their Japan Cup set to. He never looked likely to engage.

The Japanese breakthrough in Europe came in 1998 with a couple of Group wins at Deauville. El Condor Pasa and Agnes World were Group 1 winners in England and France and White Muzzle should have won the Arc on White Muzzle. In 2019 Deirdre by former British champion Harbinger won the Nassau Gr1. The mountains of money they can win in Japan compared with European prize money means they can afford the first class fares to Europe. But all they’ve taken back in the Arc has been condolences.

As a concession to my local betting shop – and the Gorgon, sorry patriot. behind the counter – I didn’t back Calandagan because having seen him lately at Epsom where he was defeated (not the only one) by admittedly idiosyncratic circumstances, he had quickly redeemed himself at Saint-Cloud. I’d been in Tokyo for his memorable Japan Cup victory but like most of his races that was down to character rather than brilliance. And given that his Group 1 victories generally come by a length or less – such as when he won the King George last year, his finest hour, putting more daylight between himself and Ombudsman in last year’s Champion Stakes over ten furlongs, stands out.

The BHA had an enquiry into the 2008 Juddmonte International over the whether O’Brien and jockey Colm O’Donoghue on their 125-1 shot Red Rock Canyon had breached Rule 123 not just by making the pace but “making a manoeuvre in a race in the interest of another horse in common ownership or under common control or from the same stable or team”. O’Donoghue had made way for Rock Canyon’s stable mate Duke of Marmalade, bumping another runner. Both O’Donoghue and stable number one Johnny Murtagh were given seven-day bans and a £5000 fine for O’Brien who didn’t appeal.

Aidan O'Brien dismissed the suggestion team tactics were employed in this year’s St James's Palace Stakes after former French champion Christophe Soumillon was handed an eight-day ban. The stewards inquired into Soumillon's ride on 16-1 chance Puerto Rico and ruled he had assisted stablemate Gstaad by impeding Power Blue and creating an opening on the inside for Gstaad, the mount of Ryan Moore. Gstaad was beaten a short head, while Moore was given his three-day ban for careless riding in the early stages.

O’Brien insisted he always puts horses in a race for one reason only. He said: “There’s no doubt about that. I always say when we put horses in a race, they’re in there for one thing. It’s to make sure there’s an even pace for everybody. That’s the only reason. Then you come out of the race and you know what trip your horse wants, and whether your horse is good enough to run against those horses or not. If it’s a muddle, you don’t know what’s going to happen and nobody knows. It’s inconclusive. I love when the best horses are running together and I’m always very happy to get beat, as long as everyone gets a clean shot. For us, competition is what we all want to see.”

Rule F (46) is the one that governs these matters and the Coolmore team have been adept at pursuing their case in these matters before the stewards and Appeal Boards. Do we put the Irish in charge of the England football team? They might lose on the pitch but they’d surely get a result in the post-match inquests.

The result of the Sussex Stakes (Gr1) centrepiece of Glorious Goodwood’s summer highlight week put Bow Echo onto a higher plane, one recognised by the racing nation. Only the immortal Frankel has won the Two Thousand Guineas, the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Sussex in succession – all Gr1 of course. Now Bow Echo has emulated ‘the great one’.

The unbeaten Bow Echo (Night of Thunder-Aristocratic Lady by Invincible Spirit) from the Dubawi family, beat his Coolmore rival Gstaad into second place for a third successive time. There were three Coolmore adversaries for Bow Echo this time but they couldn’t run the finish out of the Newmarket-trained colt. All the tactics in the world to prevent the eventuality of Bow Echo’s victory in which he achieved greatness, would have been in vain. The race was not ‘set up’ for him but his late run, after looking in a bit of trouble, was irresistible. This victory made it six out of six, it was a repeat of the Guineas and St James’s Palace one-two. “He showed all of his attributes today,” said his trainer George Boughey about his colt – who is now not only Boughey’s and champion elect jockey Billy Loughnane’s horse but has become a national treasure.