CO Meath husband and wife Gary Carroll and Joanne Quirke had a hectic few days last week but all the travel proved well worthwhile when, on Friday at Royal Ascot, Gary recorded his first Group 1 success in the Coronation Stakes on the Joe Murphy-trained Cercene.

Gary had partnered the 2022 Australia filly on all of her previous six starts but his connection with the chesnut goes back a lot further as he and Joanne broke the filly and did all the pre-training with her at their Garadice yard before she was sent down to Murphy, a long-term supporter of the jockey.

Joanne wasn’t at Royal Ascot on Friday but, having accompanied Gary to the Goffs London Sale on the Monday, did go racing on Tuesday and Wednesday (when Gary finished second on the Gavin Cromwell-trained Snellen in the Kensington Palace Stakes Fillies’ Handicap). Both then flew back to Ireland where Gary finished second on three of his four rides at Leopardstown on Thursday.

Joanne didn’t travel back to England with her husband nor did she even see the brilliant ride he gave Cercene as she was coaching members of the Meath Pony Club on Friday and the pair went their separate ways over the weekend as well.

On Saturday, Gary had seven rides at Down Royal where he won the opening fillies’ maiden on the Cromwell-trained In My Teens while Joanne headed to Orchard Lodge where she judged the flat RDS Connemara qualifiers along with Kevin McGuinness. As there was no racing in Ireland on Sunday, Gary had a rare day off and drove over to Skerries to pick up their children Annabelle (5) and Max (3) who had spent a couple of days with grandparents Connie and Peter Quirke.

There was no rest for Joanne however as she travelled west to the Ard Chuain Equestrian Centre where she judged the two RDS junior equitation qualifiers. As judge for the season, Joanne officiated at The Meadows and Cavan last month and tomorrow will be in Barnadown for the last of the four qualifiers.