LIKE most people in racing, breeding had a lot to do with where I now find myself. My family own Castletown Stud in Cork, while my father Joe also works as a manager for Coolmore at Castlehyde.

His father before him bred and raced horses. Our next-door neighbours and first cousins are the Hardings who are steeped in the National Hunt game. As a young child, I had notions of being the next Brian or Richard Harding and wanted to become a jockey. Mother Nature plainly had other ideas so I turned my attention to other aspects of the industry.