JUST as last week I was grateful to Olive Gallagher for news of the numerous Irish connections to the recent Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist. This week it is John Osborne who gets my thanks for two more Irish connections to the winner.

James Keogh ‘flipped’ the colt’s dam Seeking Gabrielle from a claimer and sold her at the Keenelend November Sale in 2011 for $45,000 to Blandford Bloodstock. This was the first of three visits in successive years to the sale, as Tim Hyde junior failed to sell the mare when she was carrying Nyquist for $90,000. What a stroke of good fortune that was!

Jamie McCalmont, formerly of Yeomanstown Lodge Stud in Co Kildare, selected Nyquist, along with trainer Doug O’Neill’s brother Dennis, for Paul Reddam and so strengthens the Irish angle with the colt. Nyquist will make his next start tonight in the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes and hopefully annex the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact leopowell@theirishfield.ie and visit our website www.theirishfield.ie with breeding news