The story of how Jacqueline O’Brien met her future husband is well worth repeating.

“I was staying with a step-sister who was married in Northern Ireland and Waring Willis brought me down to Dublin. I went out to dinner with Waring and Gerry Annesley and Vincent was there - in the Russell – having dinner on his own. The others wanted him to join us but he didn’t want that one bit. Anyway, the others went to bed and I stayed talking to Vincent. He invited me to the Curragh the next day.

“I went back to London and was taking a boat home to Australia but Vincent followed me over and after knowing each other for only about a month, we were engaged. So I went back to explain this to my family.”

Jacqueline’s father, a Member of Parliament, had a less than savoury introduction to racehorse ownership. He believe that he would gain more votes by owning a racehorse. His purchase, named St Paddy, died of dope after winning his first race by 30 lengths. As a result her father was not too keen on racehorse trainers, so she told her parents that she wanted to marry “a Tipperary farmer”.

The young bride found life tough at first in Ireland, having no knowledge of racing and few friends; going to the races was often a lonely time. However, she had two of her children – Liz and Sue – very early and work on upgrading Ballydoyle was time-consuming.

In a typical understatement, she told me: “I was no help to Vincent with the horses: I never knew about a horse’s conformation. I learnt a little about pedigrees but I was able to cope with the secretarial work and, being a politician’s daughter, I suppose I was able to help with people. Vincent used me as a sounding board for his planning – he would put both side of the case to me then decide himself what to do.”