Racing: Despite another year of international success which threw up more than its share of evocative names and images, 2003 will always be remembered as a tragic time for racing.
As if the death of jump jockey Kieran Kelly at Kilbeggan in August wasn't bad enough, less than two months later, the flat apprentice Seán Cleary lost his life at Galway.
Just one month after Cleary's death, his apprentice colleague Timmy Houlihan also died. For a sport that hadn't lost anyone for 18 years, it was a series of blows that left everyone reeling.
In the immediate aftermath there was, understandably, a question hanging in the air about what was different now that could be causing all this? And the only answer was that nothing had changed. Riding horses has always been a hard game. Jockeys know the risks better than anyone else. We were simply lucky for so long that the harsh truth that always had the potential to bite back was forgotten. But why did it have to bite so hard?
On the positive side, it's a sign of the sport's gushing good health that not winning a fourth successive Epsom Derby in June came as such a shock to the system.
Derby 2003, after all, was supposed to be a set-up: for months leading up to it, the top six or seven places in the ante-post betting were all filled by Irish-trained horses. On the day itself, there was a Guineas winner in Refuse To Bend, a future Irish Derby and King George hero in Alamshar and a quartet of blue-bloods from Aidan O'Brien's yard. Following the hoofprints of High Chaparral, Galileo and Sinndar was a cinch: except nobody told Kris Kin the script.
Kris Kin never won another race and the Derby ultimately was something of a blip in another brightly successful year for the Irish.
The only time the brilliant Dalakhani got beaten was when Alamshar and John Murtagh won out in the Curragh Derby, and when another top-international star in Falbrav came for September's Champion Stakes he ran into the inspired combination of High Chaparral and Michael Kinane.
High Chaparral's final kick was to dead-heat for another Breeders' Cup Turf, and that, too, was a final kick for Ballydoyle by Kinane. In an end-of-season game of musical chairs, Kinane moved to John Oxx, Jamie Spencer moved to Aidan O'Brien and Murtagh faces a lonely battle against weight to see if his glittering career can continue on a freelance basis next year.
There was also an "as you were" vibe for much of the jumps campaign.
Paul Carberry and Noel Meade retained their titles, a total of six winners at the Cheltenham festival were well above average and there was the confirmation that Barry Geraghty had arrived at the top of the riding tree.
The Co Meath rider notched up five winners at Cheltenham, including Moscow Flyer's victory procession in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, and easily won the leading rider award.
But as if to stamp that proof into the public consciousness, Geraghty then went on to complete an emotional Aintree Grand National success on Monty's Pass.
The winner's trainer, Jimmy Mangan, took the National crown back to east Cork while owner Mike Futter went to Belfast to count his winnings on a gamble that took the guts of a million from the bookmakers.
Timbera edged out Knock Knock to win the Irish National by a head, and the gushes of relief from Punchestown in April after a problem-free festival could be heard from a long way away.
Indian Haven landed the 2,000 Guineas, but it was the 1,000 which provided contenders for the best and worst rides of the year.
John Murtagh was hired to ride Six Perfections because of his knowledge of the Curragh, but for the 100 seconds it took to run the classic it looked like he was on the plains of Mongolia rather than Kildare.
Kinane, on Yesterday, kept his beady eye on the French superstar the whole way and a long, lingering look outside the furlong pole was all the proof needed to know Kinane had kept his rival in jail long enough to win.
Intelligence and nerve have rarely been better exhibited at headquarters.
A estimated donation of up to €20 million from the Aga Khan means the Curragh will be a very different-looking HQ by 2007, but the new place will do well to ever emulate the feel-good factor of Oaks day.
Eighty-four-year old Paddy Mullins teamed up with Frankie Dettori and there wasn't a cynical eye in the place as Vintage Tipple won out.
Just weeks later Mullins also landed the Galway Plate with Nearly A Moose, but the happy picture of 2003 will be of Mullins and Dettori, two very different men, united in triumph.
