Davy Russell with JP McManus© Photo Healy Racing
Even after the longest goodbye in racing history it won't take long for Punchestown's festival to remind everyone of that most perennial of realities - the most important race is always the next one. But in the midst of the eagerly anticipated appearances of Faugheen, Un De Sceaux, Hurricane Fly & Co, plenty will also be keeping a close eye on signs as to who might emerge as favourite for the Tony McCoy succession stakes.
The next occupant of the McManus hot-seat - if there is to be one - is an intriguing quandary because it could turn into a generational matter, with all the attendant implications such a choice will bring.
For a long time, bookmaker odds suggested the gig was Barry Geraghty's to turn down. Now we are told Davy Russell is a legitimate contender. Both men will be thirty six this year, hardly veteran class just yet, considering how McCoy continued to just shy of 41, but hardly spring-chickens either. Noel Fehily's name has been mentioned a few times in connection with the job too but he's 39.
What's interesting in this context though is how McCoy himself was 30 when taking the McManus job, at a stage in his career when he'd thoroughly proven himself and yet could face into a long term partnership with time to build the important personal and professional relationships involved.
Whether it is a consequence of McCoy enduring influence, or a convergence of an outstanding crop of riders at the same time, there's hardly a plethora of candidates with a similar profile now in terms of age, proven achievement and outstanding ability. Of course McCoy was a singular figure in racing history but there's a generation of jockeys coming up behind him which hardly qualifies as lost but hardly boasts a standout candidate for such a coveted job either.
Instead it increasingly looks a straight-forward choice between experience and youth. Do the McManus team go with the tried and trusted for a number of years or plump for a young jockey with a view to the long-term. Do they do neither? It's hard to know but what isn't difficult to imagine, given the influence McManus exerts on National Hunt racing, particularly in Ireland, is that any choice will be closely parsed.
It seems to be generally accepted that if the long-term option is taken then Paul Townend is a front-runner. At twenty four, a former champion jockey, and with experience of riding quality horses at Willie Mullins's, the logic is easy to see, as is the risk. Promise is one thing: delivering under pressure as the No.1 is another. And there are more than a few within the game who are yet to be convinced by Townend.
Mark Walsh is clearly a favourite of McManus but hardly brings the sort of profile that makes him a likely candidate for the job as it currently stands. Most other young talent in Ireland is signed up, although we hardly need reminding that circumstances can change in that regard.
As for the young talent based in the UK, McCoy's recent comments about a comparative lack of overall ability in the weighroom compared to when he was starting out can be taken as an accurate representation or perhaps an exercise in nostalgia. Either way, however, there is no doubting the ability of the young Cork man Aidan Coleman who significantly appears to be as assured out of the saddle as he is on.
Ultimately it will come down of course to McManus's judgement and he is always capable of pulling a rabbit from the hat. It's easy to forget now how 'left-field' his decision to get McCoy on board over a decade ago actually seemed. Might there be a similar surprise this time?
What's completely certain though is that talk of a 'new McCoy' is futile. The Irishman was as freakish in terms of statistical achievement as he was in terms of personal resilience. No one has ever mined more from their talent through sheer willpower.
As for cool and detached estimations of McCoy's place in the jockey pantheon it might be wise to recall what the former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai is reputed to have said when asked for a verdict on the French Revolution almost two centuries before - "Too early to say!"
There was little room for cool detachment during the McCoy farewell tour but in time, when the urgent hagiography has eased a little, it will be interesting to see how he will be viewed: a great certainly, the most successful undoubtedly, a seminal figure no argument: but the best?
Willie Mullins tore up the record books at Cheltenham and although presumption is dangerous in the National Hunt game, it's hard to come up with a reasonable argument as to why it might be different at Punchestown.
The champion trainer saddled thirteen winners at the 2013 festival. If anything, his ammunition for this week looks even stronger. There are any number of mouth-watering prospects, but those of us who believe Faugheen to be a somewhat under-appreciated champion will relish the prospect of the unbeaten star appearing on Friday. This is a horse officially rated only 3lbs behind Istabraq at his peak and 2lbs behind Hurricane Fly and amazingly the best may yet still be to come.
It's a long time since the late Val Lamb was responsible for the first thing yours truly ever had published. Armed with this boost of unjustified confidence, I came back later with a piece which he held up with distaste, declaring it un-publishable. What was different was how he'd gone to the trouble with a red pen of pointing out where it was rubbish and how it might even be salvageable.
Such old fashioned journalistic practises have become as largely redundant as red pens and actual paper.
What will never be disposable though is the willingness Val Lamb possessed to call things as he saw them. Whether that incurred the displeasure of the great and the good within the bloodstock industry was irrelevant. It made his material 'must-read' stuff for years. That's a rare quality. Val's sad passing makes it even rarer.
