IT must have been a first when it was announced on RTÉ early this week that Gail Carlisle, groom and work rider of Hurricane Fly, Douvan, etc, was leaving the Willie Mullins yard.

“And I was hoping to slip quietly away!” revealed Gail, who is heading off to the States on holiday at the end of the month. “I’m going to go to Kentucky first and then probably head to Pennsylvania to see Paddy Young and his wife Leslie.