TWENTY years ago, at the Goffs Land Rover Sale, Bobby McCarthy spent €7,000 to purchase a three-year-old daughter of Old Vic (Sadler’s Wells) out of the unraced Moon Storm (Strong Gale).

While the sale was staged in June, Bobby took the filly, later named Old Moon, back to The Beeches Stud in Tallow, Co Waterford, and she was covered weeks after by Flemensfirth (Alleged), whose first crop at the time were just five-year-olds. That crop had as its star Total Enjoyment, winner of the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, and that was to be the first of many star performers for the dual Group 1 winner.