The advent of the Flat turf season has been a conundrum ever since Doncaster’s Lincoln Handicap, once a target for classic winners, lost much of its lustre. So far has the Lincoln regressed that Saturday’s renewal has been left without its prerace favourites.

Illustrious Blue and Blue Bajan were instead saddled for a race on the all-weather at Lingfield. A once-disparaged code of racing has now usurped a race that once held Flat enthusiasts in thrall.

Admittedly, Doncaster’s redevelopment has not helped. Newcastle now hosts a race that was staged at Redcar last year. And while we all recognise the emptiness of a temporary home, there is more to it than that.

The Lincoln was but one element within the three-day Doncaster fixture that staged more than a few races of interest. That will not happen this year. Hundreds upon hundreds of well-bred three-year-olds are all dressed up with nowhere to go.

So much so that Paul Cole, a Doncaster regular, wondered last week why he had bothered to prime his string in the traditional way. “There is one three-year-old maiden at Folkestone next week,” he lamented. “It will be more like a group three race.”

Doncaster’s redevelopment emphasises just how far all-weather racing has progressed from its shabby origins as winter betting-shop fodder. Yet all-weather racing still projects a dividing line between the haves and the have-nots. After Mark Johnston captured the trainers’ title for the synthetic surface on Saturday, his travelling head lad ventured: “Let’s hope we can do as well on the Flat.”

The stigma may not last much longer, since the all-weather march seems irreversible. Doncaster may find it inherits a lost cause when the Lincoln meeting returns next year. Many trainers already prefer Polytrack to the rain-saturated turf that often prevails in March.

Nevertheless, a decent start to Flat turf racing is not necessarily dead and buried. Hope springs from the detail that Doncaster and Lingfield are both under the Arena Leisure banner. The challenge for Arena, which deserves praise for its Winter Derby fixture, is how to marry the two events.

The key here is to complement, rather than compete. Lingfield’s Polytrack is not so divorced from turf as to render futile valuable bonus races linking the two fixtures. Equally, the two fixtures are sufficiently diverse to draw on different pools of equine talent.

This deserves one last shove before the concept of a more captivating start to turf action is abandoned. As things stand, the fare over the next few weeks is enough to contemplate an impromptu holiday to mitigate frustration.

California would make an ideal destination if only Mick Easterby would take up the free entry to the Hollywood Gold Cup he earned when saddling Gentleman’s Deal to land the Winter Derby. The thought of “Spittin’ Mick” regaling locals with his brand of Yorkshire humour would alone be worth the air fare.

Big-race odds

William Hill Lincoln: Sponsors bet 8-1 Gentleman’s Deal, 9-1 Rio Riva, 12-1 Blue Bajan (doubtful), Blythe Knight, Illustrious Blue (doubtful), 14-1 Acheekyone (doubtful), Bawaader, 16-1 others.

Mind game presents problem for O’Brien

George Washington’s return to training at Ballydoyle, after his recent fertility problems, is notable for one unusual detail but will not help the intended renaissance of last season’s champion. It is that Gorgeous George remains an entire horse, as opposed to one shorn of his manhood.

That spells trouble for those charged with reviving the fortunes of this sublimely talented racehorse. Stud failures to return to the track are invariably gelded, yet even this drastic act rarely has the desired calming effect. The process of covering mares triggers an instinct to breed that is all but irreversible in the minds of most thoroughbreds.

Having been encouraged to get frisky around mares for a month, George Washington is now being asked to forget those pleasures in exchange for the lung-bursting business of racing. The portents are not good for one of his fractious demeanour.

George Washington retains his breeding apparatus because the cause of his infertility is not yet deemed hopeless. The option remains for him to return to covering duties next year. Should he return to the track in the interim as is planned — he has already been entered for the Tattersalls Gold Cup on May 27 — the challenge facing Aidan O’Brien and his team will be their sternest yet.