THE day was Good Friday, 1994. A young man - he was a mere 25 years of age - was showing me some potential sale horses in the stables of his father-in-law Joe Crowley. I knew Joe but was meeting Aidan O’Brien for the first time.

Mind you, he was already making a name for himself, having shown prowess in the saddle before taking over the trainers’ licence a year earlier from his wife Annemarie. That day he showed me a number of horses with form that my trainer friend, Bob Buckler, might be interested in. None appealed and we moved on to the next port of call.