Two unsung jockeys emerged from the ranks to play starring roles in the Flat turf season, whose cast took their curtain call on Saturday.
After many years as part of the supporting cast, Kevin Darley and Johnny Murtagh were the undoubted main characters of 2000, brushing aside the likes of Frankie Dettori and Kieren Fallon.
Darley has been a leading jockey in the north of England virtually since he was champion apprentice in 1978. He has had 100 winners in seven of the last eight seasons.
But at the age of 40 he finally made the breakthrough into the big time, landing Group One victories on Observatory and Pipalong in September, and collecting the full jockeys' crown for the first time with 152 winners.
His task was made easier by the long-term injury suffered by Fallon, who appeared on course for a fourth straight title until sidelined from Royal Ascot.
Three-time champion Fallon's absence also gave a boost to Murtagh, who came in for many of his choicest mounts from Michael Stoute, who landed his sixth trainers' championship and his first since 1997.
Big wins enjoyed by the makeshift double-act included the Dubai Champion Stakes and Breeders' Cup Turf with Kalanisi and the Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and Prix de l'Opera with Petrushka.
But it was Sinndar who made the year for Murtagh, a 30-year-old Irishman who has battled back from drink and weight problems and ended the season with no fewer than 11 Group or Grade One wins to his credit.
Trained on the Curragh by Murtagh's mentor John Oxx, Sinndar became the first Irish colt to lift the Derby for 16 years in June and went on to land the Irish Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
The three-year-old went a long way to securing a second owners' title for the Aga Khan, just as Shergar did when His Highness first took the crown in 1981.
But it was a modest year for the Maktoum family by their own high standards, with their Godolphin operation badly hit by career-ending injury to top-class pair Dubai Millennium and Kayf Tara.
Their jockey, Frankie Dettori will be thankful merely to be able to return next season. He was lucky to escape with his life from a plane crash at Newmarket in June which killed pilot Patrick Mackey and left jockey Ray Cochrane with injuries which eventually led to his retirement.
Another Derby-winning rider to quit the saddle was Walter Swinburn, who aborted his comeback in the spring due to continued weight problems.
The most high-profile trainer to give up the game was Robert Armstrong, best known for his handling of champion sprinters Moore-style and Never So Bold.
And Newmarket colleague Henry Cecil must have felt like joining him at times in a disappointing year which saw the 10-time champion finish only ninth in the table - even though Love Divine gave him a fourth Oaks win in five years - and receive a five-year ban and heavy fine for drink-driving.
Aidan O'Brien took fifth place in the British standings, largely thanks to the exploits of Giant's Causeway. His "iron horse" recorded a remarkable five straight Group One wins in the summer and came within a hair's breath of a sixth top-level triumph in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
