IN RECOGNITION of BBA Ireland’s longstanding sponsorship of today’s featured Opera Hat Mares’ Steeplechase, a listed race, Naas Racecourse commissioned an illustrated interview with Valerie Cooper, wife of the late Tom Cooper who founded the bloodstock agency in 1962.

The interview was conducted by Robert Hall and it features several aspects of Valerie’s life – from her childhood growing up in Co Cork and her successful international show jumping achievements to her life as a bloodstock agent’s wife when Tom was responsible for buying no fewer than five Derby winners and two Grand National winners.