JACK Cantillon, and “40 of my closest personal friends”, were on hand to celebrate a debut win for Syndicates Racing’s Some Pretender (Great Pretender) on the penultimate day of the Galway races. He and the members of the group have been patient with the five-year-old, as this win came more than two years after her purchase for €28,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale.

Cantillon’s skill in choosing horses was not licked off the ground, and his own pedigree had a lot of different influences. Son of Dermot Cantillon and Meta Osborne, his grandfather Michael Osborne ranks as one of the industry’s finest members. Jack’s professional career may have gone in a different direction, but he still takes a keen and substantial interest in racing and breeding.