BORN in Belfast in 1949 to parents Kevin and Agnes, Co Kildare-based businessman Joe Reynolds may be 70 now but shows no signs of slowing down. Far from it, with 670 sheep to lamb and some 100 head of cattle to take care of on the Co Kildare farm he and his wife Kathleen have called home for the last 40 years. There’s also eight German-bred young horses, being raised quietly, along with three duck ponds for various breeds.

“My father was from Tipperary and my mother was from Belfast. He was a racing man and that’s how I got involved with horses. He was in an informal partnership with John A. Wood, a well known Cork owner, and Clem Magnier was the trainer, I have very early memories of going to the races as a kid so horses were always there.