Pony tale has happy ending for farmer Jim as Equiano lands King's Stand

Never mind the fuel crisis, rising inflation and the fact that no civil servant seems to be able to take a train journey without losing state secrets, the world really has come to an end.

Something old, something new: the traditional tails and extravagant hats were on display yesterday

It would be satisfying to report that the masses around the Parade Ring - top-hatted, tailed and in the case of the women presumably knickered as per latest dress regulations - gave a hearty EU welcome to the French-bred horse prepared for the King's Stand Stakes in San Sebastian.

If truth be told, and despite the urgings of the BBC's Clare Balding on the public address system, the reception was several degrees below lukewarm.

The racegoers might have been more responsive had they known that Equiano had been purchased by an Ulsterman just two weeks ago and that from today the three-year-old bay colt will be trained in middle England by a venerable member of the racing establishment.

James Acheson, a farmer based in County Meath, was running a racehorse for the first time in his life and in the colours his father Walter last used 30 years ago. They were carried to victory on that occasion, too, albeit in a modest Irish affair.

'We are quite lucky,' Acheson said with no small measure of understatement. 'I never saw it until today but we knew it was a good horse. We can't believe it.'

Six years ago he bought another horse, a showjumper, Liscalgot by name. Six months later it won the World Showjumping Championships, ridden by young Irishman Dermott Lennon.

'I'm a farmer,' Acheson said somewhat incredulously, almost defying the insertion of the word simple. He is a farmer with a ponytail, in all likelihood the first male farmer with a ponytail to mount the podium at Royal Ascot. He might be the last.

When the dress police designated top hat and tails as compulsory wear for the Royal Enclosure they were not thinking of both adorning the head.

Despite the equestrian connotations, one can imagine ponytail appearing on next year's updated outlawed list alongside short miniskirts and bare midriffs.

For diminutive Spanish trainer Maurizio Delcher Sanchez, success came with sadness. His victory pat on the neck of Equiano was his last pat on the neck and if he re-appears in the winner's circle it will not be with the same horse.

Equiano was last night in the Lambourn stables of Barry Hills, his new trainer. There he will remain for a year of competitive racing before being retired to stud in Ireland.

Sanchez may have fed, watered and exercised the beast but his tactical involvement amounted to zero.

'You know the track and the race, you decide how to race him, but make sure you win,' was his final instruction to jockey Olivier Peslier.

Nevertheless, you would think that a strike rate of one out of one in Britain, never mind at Royal Ascot, would have earned Signor Sanchez another over, as they say.

The cricketing reference is by no means inappropriate with Richie Benaud, the former Australia captain and British broadcasting legend, having been enlisted to present the prizes for the opening race, the Group One Queen Anne Stakes.

The recipients, much to everyone's amusement, turned out to be a bunch of Aussie businessmen, owners of Haradasun.

Viva Espania: Mauritio Delcher Sanchez sadlled the first ever Spanish-trained winner at Royal Ascot

Frank Tagg, the spokesman for three couples, remembered as a boy watching Benaud skipper Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

'Winning at Royal Ascot is a bigger thrill than receiving the trophy from Richie Benaud but it is a close run thing,' he said.

Tagg and co have owned McDonald's restaurant franchises in Sydney and Canberra for 30 years. Hence their racing colours of yellow, red and white.

Fifty per cent of Haradasun was bought by the vast Irish breeding operation of Coolmore, whose principals remained in the background yesterday.

So, we had the unusual sight and sound of an Aidan O'Brien trained and Johnny Murtagh ridden winner being led into the ring to the chant: 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.'

It was very nearly the same again in the following race with the aforementioned Equiano edging out controversial Australian horse Takeover Target in a photo finish.

The other way round would really have set the kangaroo among the koala bears.

Takeover Target tested positive for anabolic steroids in Hong Kong in 2006, a history which some thought should have excluded him from running in this country. We may not have heard the last of this.

Takeover Target will run in the more favourable conditions of the Golden Jubilee Stakes here on Saturday and in the July Cup at Newmarket.