SEAN Reilly had a couple of goes at getting directly into racing before it clicked for him. He started by riding out in Michael Scott’s Farnagh Stud in Moate in 1996, before taking to plunge to go and buy a filly. It didn’t work out with the filly, whose foals turned out to be worse than the other, by Reilly’s own admission. He then decided to give it a go as an amateur jockey, but again, by his own admission, it was probably 15 years too late for that.

The click came in the form of a shadow. Rubys Shadow, to be more precise. She was a Supreme Leader broken mare Reilly bought at the Tattersalls August Sale in 1999 and she has been some servant since.