The nagging begins when the runners pass the winning post in the last race of the Punchestown festival. It stems from a realisation that some old friends have gone away and it will be at least six months before acquaintances are renewed. Half a year before we see Newmill, War of Attrition or Brave Inca grace a racecourse again.

The flat season offers little immediate compensation. For some reason it has become unfashionable for Guineas horses to run in classic trials and the level of expectancy in the build up to the first big races has been adversely affected. Against this bleak landscape, the field cantered to post for last week's 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, the runners carrying nine stone of jockey on their back and a ton of 'so-what' in their saddlebags.

Most of the field last Saturday were making a seasonal reappearance, the bulk of them only half remembered as their promise of last summer was lost in the clamour of the spring jumping festivals.

Then at 3.20 the starter pressed the 'go' button, the stalls crashed open and 14 well bred thoroughbreds careered up the Rowley Mile.

Just over 97 seconds later, the flat season had truly begun.

The favourite, George Washington, whose presidential namesake built a reputation on an inability to lie, gave us a moment of searing truth with an explosive and jaw dropping performance.

Eight hours later, just as the warm glow of the Newmarket race was beginning to fade, there was an unexpected bolt from the blue grass of Kentucky.

The three-year-old colt Barbaro produced an astonishing performance in the Kentucky Derby. He demolished a top class field by sixand-a-half lengths, the longest winning distance since Assault won by eight lengths in 1946.

The weekend still had a sting in the tail. If the performances of George Washington and Barbaro were the stuff of action adventure novels, last Sunday at Newmarket was pure Mills and Boon. Speciosa, one of only a dozen horses trained by Pam Sly, gave small timers with big dreams room for perpetual hope when she romped home easily in the first filly's classic of the season, the 1000 Guineas. Three races in an amazing 24-hour period had given a lethargic flat season a welcome burst of energy. The summer suddenly began to look interesting again.

Pam Sly has a slight look of the 1980s celebrity dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse about her. It's not hard to imagine her grabbing the reins of a difficult horse and re-establishing control with a yell of "walkies!" She trains her horses by galloping them across the fenlands of Cambridgeshire, a long way from the traditional training centres and their moneyed hordes. She bought Speciosa cheaply and her partnership's determination to live the dream gave them the courage to turn down huge offers for their filly.

The charm and romance of Speciosa's victory is easily matched by that of Barbaro and the story of his connections. Trainer Michael Matz, like Pam Sly, has seen some interesting times in unexpected places. A three-time Olympic showjumper, he was a silver medallist and flag bearer at Atlanta in 1996.

Matz was greeted at the Churchill Downs race track last week by three happy looking young adults, who were even happier when they first ran into him as children back in 1989. They had been copassengers on a United Airlines DC10 that crashed and burned in the cornfields of Iowa, and he had led them to safety before going back into the flames to rescue a baby.

Over one hundred other passengers had not been so lucky.

Michael Matz is a genuine allAmerican super hero.

Barbaro was unbeaten in five races heading into the Derby, but there was concern among the local punters and pundits that he hadn't seen a racecourse since a prep race five weeks earlier. If they realised that his European counterparts were contesting a classic without seeing a racecourse in seven months, their brains would probably have melted.

It didn't seem to bother Barbaro too much. He stalked a fast pace and exploded off the final bend to win in a manner that evoked memories of previous champions such as Secretariat and Affirmed. He is only even money to win this year's Triple Crown and the owner has made noises about taking across the pond later in the year to tackle Europe's finest in the Arc.

Barbaro is unlikely to come up against the miler, George Washington, in Paris, but they may have already met. In a remarkable coincidence but more likely an act of God, both of these horses were bred by the same stud farm in the same year.

Aidan O'Brien can always be relied upon to come up with a decent adjective to describe his best horses, but even he had to double up to describe George. He is not only 'serious', but 'arrogant' too. The manner in which he won the 2000 Guineas suggests he may indeed be both - and a lot more besides.

The truth of his Newmarket performance lies in the sectional times of his race. He seems to have an ability few horses possess . . . he can sustain explosive acceleration over an extended distance.

Settled at the back of the field by Fallon, his injection of pace three furlongs from home took him visibly clear of his field and won him the race.

What was less obvious was he also ran each of the last two furlongs faster than any other horse. Even though he ran off a straight line, and was eased at the finish, he was the only horse to run the final furlong in under 13 seconds.

Nothing was catching George Washington. Nothing may ever catch George Washington.

His post race reluctance to enter the winners circle and his general quirkiness just adds to the attraction of this racing machine. Kieran Fallon indicated after the race that Aidan O'Brien was the only one that the horse would 'listen to' and watching the relationship between this calm man and his highly-strung beast will be an intriguing backdrop for the flat season.

It may even help us to take our minds off Brave Thingymebob and War of Whatshisface.