How did you first get involved in racing and bloodstock?

KQ: I’m from Liverpool originally, and I always had horses growing up. I went to the racing school in Newmarket when I was 17 and worked for a few trainers but had to take some time off after a fall. I applied for The National Stud course in Newmarket in 2015 which is where I met Conor. We did some travelling then in Australia, New Zealand and America before coming back home to settle on Conor’s family farm.

CQ: I had no horsey background. My grandparents’ farm only had cattle and wasn’t set up for horses, but once I got old enough, I saw it as more of an opportunity. In college I liked a bet and I followed the racing quite closely. I got more into pedigrees and that completely fascinated me. When I was 20 or 21 I wrote a letter to Michael O’Leary about a mare that I thought he should buy, he probably thought it was from a child somewhere down the country, but to be fair to him he responded!

It must have taken a lot of work to get the farm ready for mares and foals.

CQ: When we moved home, we bought a few mares for two and three grand. We were both working at Castlehyde Stud at the time and we spent hours and hours rolling up old barbed wire and replacing it with tape.

We had no real safety net and the farm certainly wasn’t fit to board other people’s mares. For the first few years, any bit of money that we made went straight back into the farm. We’ve put up post and rail and the farm has never looked better so we’re really proud of it. We just had a blind belief that we could make it happen and we’ve been so lucky that things have gone well.

KQ: Looking back on it, ignorance was bliss. We’d be foaling all night and then up to work in Castlehyde, I don’t know how we did it. The second year, I stayed home to do the foaling and Conor stayed at Castlehyde. The following year, we bought a cheap filly, and Conor said that he’d leave the job if she made €20,000. Funnily enough, she made bang on €20,000 and he left Castlehyde the next day and we’ve been at home ever since.

I understand you were in America for Magny Cours’ run?

KQ: We managed to get wifi on the plane so we were able to watch the race, but it was hard to keep calm when she won. My mum went, and Conor’s brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, but I was definitely getting a bit of FOMO!

CQ: This is the only time of year we can really get away, and thanks to both sets of parents, who aren’t really horsey, they’re happy to feed while we’re gone. We’re lucky that there are good farriers and practitioners around us that are happy to help so we’ve managed to sneak away for a week.

I see she was due to be sold as a yearling last year, tell us about that.

KQ: We sent her to Fairyhouse last year but I’m terribly soft, Conor is the businessman in the relationship because I’d keep everything. That filly is the love of my life. I told Conor on the way there that I’d be delighted if she was behind us in the box on the way home. I was walking around the parade ring nearly crying! I was so happy when she didn’t sell that everyone back at the stableyard thought she must have sold really well!

How did the partnership with trainer Danny McLoughlin start?

KQ: We met Danny for the first time at Fairyhouse when we had Maggie at the sales and after chatting to him, I was wondering why doesn’t everyone train like him. He leaves no stone unturned. Maggie is in the field for six hours every day. We’re very natural at home and all of our horses are prepped from the field, so I love that he can replicate what we did at home. She thrives being in the field, and that’s how a horse should be treated.

CQ: I can’t speak highly enough of Danny. He’s wise far beyond his years and 110% gets the best out of his horses. We had the option of running in the median auction maiden but we left it in Danny’s hands and he decided with the fillies’ maiden going up against fillies that cost six figures. To go and turn them over was brilliant. Himself, Dylan and Carlos, the head lad, do a brilliant job. The most exciting thing is that he has the scope to grow, and we’ll be supporting him at every possible corner. He’s well able to train two-year-olds which is a much more nuanced form of training.

You’ve been involved in some high-profile horses, how would you compare a horse that you’ve sourced winning versus a homebred?

KQ: It’s very different. When you’re watching Big Evs or Big Mojo, you’re confident in them and it’s great when they win, but when it’s a homebred, they’re like your child. Conor always says that the day Big Evs won at Ascot was the best day of his life, I have to remind him that we got married last year!

CQ: With the likes of Big Evs, you feel the pressure, which is a privilege on those big days, and then there’s massive relief and elation. With Maggie, I felt no pressure, because I knew if she was useless no one would want to buy her and Kathryn could keep her.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to deal with in your careers?

CQ: I suppose early doors, it’s recognition. We had a few years spent away, and some back-to-back seasons so we felt that we had the experience, but coming home and walking through the gates of the auction house, it’s a different world and quite a tight bubble.

If you’ve never sold a big ticket horse, no one will give you decent money, but until that happens, it’s hard to get a nice horse to sell, it’s a vicious circle. We bred our first classic winner last year when Maggie’s sister won the Italian 1000 Guineas, and being by a Guineas winner, hopefully Maggie is on that warpath now.

KQ: Like Conor says, it’s hard to break through, especially when you don’t have a horsey background. For me, it’s definitely a man’s world at the sales. I might pull a horse out to be looked at, and people will thank Conor! It’s as if they think I’m his staff, even though it could be me that owns the horse. Conor has been congratulated for Maggie’s win, but I own her.