VICTORIA Brann from Co Down, her sister Catherine Gabbett from Co Kilkenny, and their friend Bridget Cuming, based in London, had four-time winning mare Izzini in training with Stuart Crawford. Now they have their Shantou filly Victoria Says in training with Crawford also.

Their best days’ racing were in October 2012 when Izzini won her first race – a bumper at Sedgefield. The owners will never forget the thrill of seeing Izzini and Steven Crawford charging down to the finish 11 lengths in front.

The second day was March 2014 when Izzini ran in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. The race didn’t go to plan and she finished 18th out of 22 but Cheltenham certainly know how to appreciate their owners. They gave them badges, encouraged them to walk the track beforehand and provided a top quality marquee for owners and trainers – all of which contributed to making a great day even better.

Victoria outlined what keeps them going in racing: “Have you seen that film Dream Alliance? Well it’s the incredible true story of Dream Alliance, a horse bought for £300 on an allotment in Caerphilly who went on to win the Welsh Grand National and £137,000 in prize money. It was bred by Jan Vokes who had the attitude that just because she was working class and living in the valleys and cleaned the tills at Asda, why shouldn’t she breed a winning racehorse?

“That’s what I love about racing – it’s the ‘what if’.

“After our success we now have all the anticipation of Victoria Says for this season. She was just held by a neck at Hexham last season when struck by a rival’s whip in the face.

“We only race mares because we want to know what happens to our horses after racing. Izzini has had two foals and is now in foal to Shantou. The first foal will be coming into racing soon so our interest goes on.

“The thing about owning racehorses is that it keeps a buoyancy to life and in our case, as we all live distantly from each other, it’s a great way of keeping in touch.

“I think a love of horses and racing must be genetic, it’s in the blood. My father, mother and uncle were all involved in racing and my brother rode in points.

“Forget the money – from the beginning we just put our money into our account and forgot about it.

“Now we are getting ready for Victoria – she’s not far off a run and Stuart (Crawford) seems very pleased with her.

“Racing makes life better, it’s the best thing I ever did going into ownership. I know what I’m doing and I’m enjoying myself.