In July 1998, at the age of 31, Paris-born Véronique Sanders agreed to embark on a bold, if bittersweet, mission with an American banker she barely knew: to restore her family's Bordeaux château to its former glory, win over international wine critics, and earn a place among the very best of the grands crus.
Two weeks later he was at Ascot on Champions Day, when Olympic Glory won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
This Andrei, riven with doubt and hoping that glory won on the battlefield will lend his life meaning, was the man.
Fame And Glory won the race last year and followed up in the stayers' race on the inaugural champions day at this track in October.
For three decades, East Germans ran, swam and shot-putted their way to glory, winning Olympic gold medals, setting world records and - so it seemed at the time -demonstrating the superiority of communism.
Between 1996 and 2004 in the old national league, Glory won the premiership three times, the championship twice, and most importantly, revolutionised the way football was organised in Australia.
She would need to tap her old aggression to have any chance at greater glory: winning one of the three spots on the team that will represent the United States when women's boxing becomes a medal sport at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London.
Boxing is where he came closest to glory, winning a silver medal after a controversial defeat in the middleweight division final to Johnny William Henry Douglas, another man of multi-sport talent – Douglas would later captain the England cricket team and was awarded the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1915.
When Olympic Glory won the QEII on Champions Day last weekend, he ended a Channel 4 interview by asking Clare Balding, cheerfully but nonetheless firmly, if she would mind not asking the question he has been asked again and again for years, namely: when does he expect to take over?
How about this? "Thou wast the deep glen; Thou wast the mountaintop- the sage's pen; the poet's harp - the voice of friends - the sun; Thou wast the river - thou wast glory won; thou wast my clarion call - thou wast my steed-My goblet full of wine - my topmost deed".
He scored his first goal against Adelaide United as Perth Glory won the game 3 0.
