Today is one of those days which makes racing such a wonderful sport - a day when champions are put to the ultimate test.

For a Derby winner to be classed as a truly great horse, he has to go on and prove himself against the older generation.

Aidan O'Brien's Galileo, winner of the English and Irish Derbies in scintillating style, gets his chance to go down in history today when he faces five-year-old superstar Fantastic Light in the King George at Ascot.

There have been some epic King George battles between the generations over the years, most notably the contest that went down as "the race of the century"- Grundy outpointing Bustino after a lung-bursting duel down the Ascot straight.

Michael Kinane's amazing eleventh-hour reprieve from suspension is a huge boost for Galileo, but Fantastic Light has the services of Frankie Dettori.

It's baffling how Kinane managed to get off when Kieren Fallon had to miss the Irish Derby ride on Golan. Consistency never was a strong point among the racing authorities.

Nevertheless, the 2001 King George promises to be a mouth-watering affair, but I go for Galileo to prevail.

In my eyes, he's the best horse we've seen for many years and today he'll go down as one of the all-time legends.

WHAT a sad week it's been for racing with the deaths of Grand National-winning trainer Terry Casey and leading owner Prince Fahd Salman, whose colours Generous carried to victory in the Derby.

Terry Casey, who saddled Rough Quest to victory in the 1996 National, died after a long battle against cancer at the age of 56. Prince Fahd Salman died aged 46 from a heart attack. Both will be sorely missed by the racing fraternity.

On another sad note, West Tip, winner of the 1986 Grand National under Richard Dunwoody, also died this week aged 24.

Not only did he win the National, but he ran some fine races in other nationals. One North-East character who'll remember him better than most is my fellow trainer Chris Grant.

Chris, who trains near Hartlepool, was on board 66-1 shot Young Driver that day and must have thought he had the race won until Dunwoody swept past him on West Tip and left him having to make do with second.

Mind you, Chris got used to National near-misses over the years because he was the jockey who came so close so many times on Durham Edition.

Today sees Mungo Park in action at Newcastle.

He deserves a victory but is a really difficult ride. All his regular pilots are in action at Ascot so I hope Joe Fanning can be cool enough to put his nose in front on the line.

Column Published: 28/07/01