AS part of my second placement on the ITBA Next Generation Apprenticeship Scheme, I began at the world-renowned Coolmore Stud in the second week of January. I wasn’t sure what to expect and was nervous going into a big organisation having never foaled a mare before.

I travelled down on a Sunday evening and was met by area manager Derek Bailey who runs the Ballintemple Foaling Unit where I have spent the first two months of my four-month placement. It is here where all of the Coolmore partners’ mares are foaled so the quality is truly astonishing. Many of the mares are multiple Group 1 winners themselves or dams of some of Europe’s best racehorses. I have gotten to work daily with Meow, dam of last season’s European Champion two-year-old Churchill, and Hveger, dam of Highland Reel and Idaho.