HORSES of a lifetime qualify for that title in many ways for owners and connections. For Lisa Rosbotham, Valent was initially not at all what she expected when Dermott Lennon tipped off the Co Down family in 2006 about a Dutch-bred youngster for sale.

In their Breeders’ 10 feature, back in 2020, Lisa described picking up their sight unseen buy: “We loved Valent since he arrived as a four-year-old, although it wasn’t until we went to collect him from Birmingham that I realised we had bought a stallion! I’d never even sat on a stallion before, never mind owning one, but he was so quiet to work with, gelding him never entered our heads.