He was also prominent among those who led a chant for Hill, Senna's last team-mate. But the people clearly believed that the funerary lamentations had satisfied their need for overt displays of grief, and yesterday's remembrances were of a different and more discreet kind. You could have spent all week in the city's streets of So Paulo without seeing or hearing a single reference to Brazil's greatest sporting hero since Pel.As the drivers waited on the starting grid, a man in a replica of Senna's Marlboro driving suit and yellow crash helmet sat in the front row of the grandstand, a few yards away from the car on pole position, Damon Hill's Williams. But this was not an example of posthumous ghoulishness: that man, in that outfit, turned up every year to greet Senna, and his continued presence - for this one year, at least - seemed appropriate.

Remembering the awe-inspiring displays of collective grief at his funeral last year, when a large proportion of the city's 15 million inhabitants took to the streets to greet his coffin as it rode through the concrete canyons on the back of a fire engine, and when more than 200,000 people queued to file by his mortal remains in the July 9 Palace, that was understandable. But when he spun off while chasing Michael Schumacher, no one suspected that he had just said farewell to his home circuit. Some European visitors were perplexed by the low-key nature of So Paulo's homage to their local boy at yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix. For the first time in 12 years Ayrton Senna was not part of the annual ritual shared by the 26 drivers who will contest the Formula One world championship, writes Richard Williams. At Interlagos this time last year, Senna took pole position in his first race for the Williams team, a combination expected to cruise to the championship. If you have to come back as an animal in another life, make sure it is as a horse, and make sure it is in Dubai.One day Sheikh Mohammed would like to return a Derby winner to his country (especially as he now believes a breeding industry can be established). He denies unconditionally reports that he has bought a share in Celtic Swing, and expects his own colt, Pennekamp, to be a worthy adversary come Epsom in June.It has always been said that the Derby is the one race the crown prince of Dubai would like to win, but he attempts to downplay its significance. "I have waited for the Derby for such a long time that I am now getting bored waiting," he said last week Do not believe him..

When the Class of '95 had their picture taken yesterday in the pit lane at Interlagos, it was without their head boy. One visit here and the vision of a trainer feeling the legs of his horse to diagnose a problem swirls down a plughole at the back of the brain. The latest edifice is a hospital so well-equipped that it would be an instructive stopping-off point for Virginia Bottomley. The new facility, however, is not for human beings but for horses.The hospital, on a site which was nothing but dust 12 months ago, has an impressive array of state-of-the art equipment. "They're like bulls." They also look like horses worth following after they move to Peter Chapple-Hyam's yard in May.Sheikh Mohammed himself will be sending over about 30 horses from his Godolphin enterprise, which act as a sandwich board for racing in his homeland. With Dubai's oil supplies due to peter out in 25 years, the Sheikh is attempting to establish a business infrastructure.There are already international tournaments for tennis, snooker, golf and powerboat racing.

"They're so muscly and way ahead of anything I've ever seen," Simon Crisford, one of the Sheikh's racing managers, said. Sangster has a handful of juveniles at the Sheikh's Al Quoz stables, two-year-olds which were foaled in Australia and then brought to the Middle East They have yet to see a traditional winter And it shows. For part of the journey he read a piece about the world's most powerful owner: an epithet that used to be his, but now belongs to the man who has made Dubai racing-conscious, Sheikh Mohammed.Not that the pair are dire enemies. When Robert Sangster returned from the Emirates on Friday he travelled first-class to Heathrow fortified by caviar and Dom Perignon.

"He gets room from other jockeys who wouldn't give the time of day if I sent a young nightclubber from the South swanking his way up there."Dubai, to borrow a Stateside adjective, is a happening place. When the Stanley House horses venture northwards, however, and Dettori is unavailable, the little-heralded John Carroll will have his share of mounts. "I like John because he has good hands and respect up North," Gosden said in Dubai this week. "For a while at least."Dettori will, of course, be riding many of the horses trained for Sheikh Mohammed by John Gosden this season. The jockey was in Dubai last week, advertising his dentist's skills for the many broadcast interviews. Off camera, though, he inevitably slips to a thoughtful countenance.Interviews of any depth are no longer granted to reporters.