We've come to know it as Takeover Target's box. It's the end one in a row of six at Newmarket's Abington Place Stables, an overflow from the main yard occupied by Aussie ex-pat Jane Chapple-Hyam.

For four consecutive annual visits, the great sprinter spent his days there, contentedly picking grass after exercise in the quiet paddock and heading off for evening walks with Joe Janiak once the morning hullabaloo of Newmarket Heath, just beyond his gate, had abated.

Among more than 2,000 equine bluebloods in British horseracing's HQ it would have been easy to overlook Takeover Target. With his funny shuffling stride and almost common head, his conformation gave no hint at the true champion contained within. Looks, though, are irrelevant. Racehorses are often, wrongly, compared to sports cars with high-performance engines but their ability to perform is much more organic than mechanical. On the racecourse, Takeover Target's chipped knees and strange gait didn't matter: he was quite simply all heart. The good ones always are.

Leaving the gallops one morning last year after watching a string work, I spied through the trees the telltale saddle-cloth with the target logo. Returning to the viewing platform, I was fortunate enough to watch Takeover Target and Jay Ford complete a final exercise gallop before the July Cup. None of us knew then that it would be the last gallop of his career, barring the race in which he was injured seriously enough to bring the curtain down without that longed-for Hollywood ending.

Disappointing though it was for those of us who had grown to love him during his English summers, it was only right that he should have had his last winning hurrah in his homeland, to stands packed with adoring fans at Morphettville. He was Australia's horse, a sprinter to make the nation proud, his rags-to-riches tale an inspiration to every would-be racehorse owner in the land.

So now, in his place at the end of the stable row, we have Gold Trail, perhaps prophetically named if he's anywhere near as good as his compatriots who have arrived for England's flagship meeting before him. Next to him, where Scenic Blast stood last year, is the mare Alverta, while Nicconi is in the next-door yard, the four-year-old horse stabled separately to keep his mind on the game and off Alverta.

The 2,500-acre training grounds on Newmarket Heath will be a bewildering environment for them, the masses of green space and gallops of differing camber and length a stark contrast to the familiarity of the training track. Gold Trail's trainer Gary Portelli has enlisted the help of local boy Toby Coles, who, at 25, is Newmarket's youngest and newest trainer. Coles has valuable experience of training methods in Australia and New Zealand having been the track rider for the Morton family's Nom Du Jeu and, more recently, for Melbourne Cup fifth place-getter Harris Tweed.

Choisir taught English racegoers to have the utmost respect Australian sprinters, a message reinforced by those who followed in his wake. Their now annual presence at Royal Ascot is a highlight of the summer, as is their time spent in Newmarket in preparation. Gold Trail, Alverta and Nicconi are welcome here. But it will always be Takeover Target's box.

Emma Berry is a journalist who owns and breeds racehorses and lives in a small racing stable in Newmarket, England.