Of all the great alliances between man and horse, Max Whitlock is the most brilliant – and reliable – jockey of them all.
Red Rum always gave Brian Fletcher and Tommy Stack a game ride around Aintree in the Grand National, and the Lone Ranger's great white stallion Silver was an invincible accomplice.
But put Whitlock on a pommel horse at the Olympics and there is an aura of genius at work.
As the finest thing to come out of Hemel Hempstead since the M1 unfurled a routine that was as close to perfection as human and 'equine' synergy would allow, Whitlock became a three-time Olympic champion here.
And the British gymnast who always makes you believe a man can fly became the third Team GB athlete in a week, after equestrian queen Charlotte Dujardin and swimmer Duncan Scott, to bank six medals in an Olympic career.
First to go in the eight-man final, 28-year-old Whitlock was technically faultless - even when the butterflies were more rampant than at any time in his career.
“This was the most nervous I’ve been for any competition I’ve done in my whole life,” he gasped. “Retaining titles is 10 times harder than chasing them. Today’s proved that to me – in fact, it’s a million times harder.
“That feeling of winning Olympic gold is crazy and you want to experience it again. But you know how hard it is to do that so when you’re watching athletes coming through, and medals are flowing in for Team GB, you know when your time is coming up to really try and give it your best shot.
“I was first one up as well - I’ve never done that before, so the pressure was on. I usually go into a pommel final with three options or routines and my coach Scott Hann gauges them and sees what the scores are like.
“This time, first man up, it was all-in. That’s the biggest routine I’ve ever competed – a seven (difficulty) start - so the risk was very high. I had to go for it and I can’t believe it came off.
“Me and Scott sat there after my routine and we said, 'You know what, if anyone beats that score, then good on them because that was the best I could do.' I couldn't have done any more.
“But on the plus side, it was the first time I’ve managed to watched a pommel final live, which is quite nice!”
Whitlock's routine is only 60 seconds long, but its ostentatious ambition left ample scope for doubt or disaster. One slip, and the gold turns to tin.
Not for the first time, Our Max was fearless. As well as bloody good.
“What’s really hard is that you battle with yourself in your head, you really do,” he admitted.
“I know I can do the routine, I’ve trained for that moment, I’ve done so much training - but you can never put yourself in that situation or that environment. You can never prepare for it.
“The whole morning, I really felt the pressure. I had a long wait, this competition I knew that we weren’t going to be marching out until half six, quarter to seven, so I was doing everything I could to recover my arms, my legs, everything, as much as I possibly could.
“You do believe but you are constantly having a battle in your head, as your routine goes through your head, just trying not to think about mistakes.
“You know how small the margins are, so when the scores hit and the final score came up, the emotions hit you like a ton of bricks. I’ve only had that a few times in Olympic Games. The feeling was crazy.”
Whitlock's nerveless, breathless routine earned him a mark of 15.583 from the judges – higher than any mark in qualifying.
Chinese Taipei acrobat Chih Kai Lee – who earned top marks in qualifying – ran him close with 15.400, but when Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan, another impressive qualifier, suffered an early slip through the side door, the writing was on the wall.
On Super Sunday in Rio, Whitlock led the Team GB gold rush by winning two Olympic titles in as many hours. He was in exalted company, with Andy Murray and Justin Rose topping the podium on a glorious sabbath in South America.
They painted the signs gold at Hemel Hempstead station in Whitlock's honour in 2016. Among the empty shelves back home, there is going to be a shortage of gold-leaf paint in the borough of Dacorum.
