AMERICAN businessman Bill Donovan is in monetary terms the single biggest benefactor for harness racing in Ireland or the UK.

The Irish Field has often mentioned how a chance encounter at a 2010 US yearling sale whereby Donovan met trainer/driver Donal Murphy from Cork and owner Finbar Quill from Kerry led to a sequence of events which culminated in Bill becoming the main sponsor of the Red John Memorial Weekend in the West Cork region, now in its sixth year.