THOUGH she did not use it when she raced and bred horses in Ireland. Sheila Moore was correctly styled the Hon Mrs C A Moore. Born Constance Sheila Digby, she was the daughter of the 11th Baron Digby of Geashill, while her mother was a daughter of the 2nd Baron Aberdare.

Sheila’s sister Pamela Harriman was at one time daughter-in-law of Sir Winston Churchill and she was the US ambassador to France when Bill Clinton was President of the USA. In 1945 Sheila married Charles Arthur Moore from Greenwich in Connecticut and he too had some impressive family connections, his aunt Elsie marrying an Italian prince and their son having married a daughter of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

Enough of the family pedigree. Sheila Moore divided her time between homes in Atlanta, Georgia and Bearforest in Mallow, Co Cork before her death, at the age of 92, in 2014. She founded her stud farm in Mallow in 1972 and adopted a policy of breeding fillies to race and the colts to be sold. For many years she was an owner with Paddy Mullins and well-known runners to carry her colours included the Grade 1 winning hurdler Asian Maze, and the smart hurdlers and siblings Notcomplainingbut and Force Seven.

The latter pair are recalled following victory at Killarney for the Enda Bolger-trained Ballyoisin in the Listed Beaufort Golf Club An Riocht Chase, the second listed chase the son of Presenting (Mtoto) won at the Kerry track. He obviously loves the air down south as he has a third listed chase to his name, ironically won just up the road from Bearforest Stud at Cork or Mallow racecourse.

Ballyoisin was bred by Sheila Moore and sold as a foal for €55,000 to that great judge of horseflesh John O’Byrne. He has more than repaid that investment and won a point-to-point, a hurdle race and four chases. He is the second foal and only winner to date for his dam Regal Force (King’s Ride), though she has been a difficult breeder and only has four living foals since going to stud in 2007.

Her two most recent offspring are a four-year-old full-brother to Ballyoisin who was also purchased by John O’Byrne as a foal, this time for €32,000, and a yearling colt by Milan (Sadler’s Wells).

Regal Force was trained by Tom Mullins and, in spite of his best efforts, she was of modest ability. On the penultimate outing of her 13-race career he managed to place her to be fourth at Naas, thus earning the description in a sales catalogue of having been placed over hurdles!

Regal Force is a half-sister to three winners and she is a daughter of the aforementioned Force Seven, a very useful hurdler and chaser and a daughter of the champion sire Strong Gale (Lord Gayle). Two of the most important victories of her 10-win career were gained in the hands of Trevor Horgan, and both were at the Punchestown Festival.

She landed the Downshire Hurdle and the Bradstock Insurance Novice Chase, while she stepped up a class to finish third in two of Ireland’s premier chases, the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup (to Jodami and Deep Bramble) and the Ericsson Chase (to Deep Bramble and Flashing Steel), both run at Leopardstown.

Force Seven was born four years before her half-sister Notcomplainingbut (Supreme Leader) and the latter missed out narrowly on matching Force Seven’s winning tally, landing nine successes. Her most important successes were in the Grade 2 Dennys Juvenile Hurdle and Grade 3 Spring Hurdle, both at Leopardstown, and at the same course she ran second to Graphic Equaliser in the Ladbroke Hurdle. She in turn is now dam of the blacktype earner Elsie (Milan).

Presenting needs no introduction to breeders of National Hunt stock. The John Gosden trained runner was a four-time stakes winner, his most important victory coming in the colours of his owner-breeder George Strawbridge in the Group 2 Geoffrey Freer Stakes. He was a listed winner at two and ran third to Lammtara in the Epsom Derby of 1995.

Liam Cashman acquired him for Rathbarry Stud when his racing career concluded and he finished his days at Glenview Stud where he was put down last August.

In a remarkable career at stud he was champion sire four times, sired some 20 Grade 1 winners, and is now, not surprisingly, a leading broodmare sire of such stars as Might Bite and Presenting Percy.

He sired a pair of Cheltenham Gold Cup winners in Denman and War Of Attrition, while his other Grade 1 winners include First Lieutenant, Yorkhill, Dunguib, Weapon’s Amnesty and No More Heroes. His son Pleasant Company came agonisingly close to giving him a second Aintree Grand National winner this year, Ballabriggs having landed the world’s most famous race in 2011.