Cheers from Cheltenham's jumping festival still ringing in his ears, Ireland's master trainer Aidan O'Brien is now poised for an all-out assault on the biggest prizes of the summer flat season.
Just last week O'Brien was the toast of the Cheltenham crowd after Istabraq joined an elite band of racing greats to have won three Champion Hurdles in succession.
Now his awesome arsenal of equine firepower train their sights on England's three-year-old classics as Doncaster's Lincoln meeting kicks off the flat campaign on Thursday.
A prodigious class of O'Brien two-year-olds hogged six of the top 12 places in last year's official European rankings. 'We have not seen a trainer dominating like this since the days of his namesake, Vincent,' said chief handicapper Geoffrey Gibbs.
While the best of the lot, Fasliyev, suffered a career-ending injury, winter Epsom Derby favourite Aristotle, leading Guineas fancy Giant's Causeway, and musical trio Bernstein, Rossini and Brahms make up a formidable hand.
Such is the strength in depth at his famed Ballydoyle stables that if last year's stars disappoint, O'Brien can simply bring up-and-comers like Monashee Mountain, Shakespeare and filly Inkling into his A-team.
O'Brien's blue-blooded army goes into battle against the massed ranks of Dubai's Godolphin operation, responsible for over a quarter of the entries for the first colts' classic - Newmarket's 2,000 Guineas in just six weeks time.
Godolphin chief Sheikh Mohammed believes that as well as the classic challenge, four-year old Dubai Millennium will cement his star credentials this season, starting with a win in the world's richest race - the Dubai World Cup on Saturday.
Dubai Millennium may have to yield top international billing to France's Montjeu, whose blistering French and Irish Derby wins last year were crowned by a memorable victory in the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe before running fourth in the Japan Cup.
Montjeu will this year aim to be the first horse since Alleged over 20 years ago to win back-to-back Arcs, and trainer John Hammond says he has wintered well.
'The horse is fine but we haven't sorted out his early season plans yet. He certainly won't be out until May - his end of season aim will be the Arc and his mid-season target the King George,' Hammond told Reuters.
While Istabraq is on the way to being the first jumper since Desert Orchid to touch the wider public's heart, flat fans have to look back 20 or 30 years to the days of Shergar, or even Nijinsky and Mill Reef for their last national hero.
A top-class Derby winner would be especially good news after Oath last year became the fourth successive Epsom hero to make little subsequent impression.
Oath's trainer Henry Cecil - hoping to put last year's traumatic split with champion jockey Kieren Fallon firmly behind him - houses a highly-rated three-year-old filly in High Walden, seen as a live chance for the 1,000 Guineas in May.
Fallon, the first flat jockey since Sir Gordon Richards nearly 50 years ago to ride 200 winners in a season three times running, takes up the reins at Sir Michael Stoute' stable.
And the racing world's best wishes will no doubt be with a former Stoute stable jockey, Walter Swinburn, as he stages another comeback from persistent weight-related problems.
