IT’S a chilly midweek afternoon on the Curragh. In the cosy sitting room of the old house, annexed to his training yard at Crotanstown Stud, Michael O’Callaghan is watching the racing from Chester. A dog lies at his feet, while a dog-eared catalogue - 2015 Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sales – lies on the coffee table beside him.

Our conversation is halted for the two-year-old race. Glued to the television, Michael nods approvingly as a “nice, gutsy’’ two-year-old gets the job done. Michael knows a bit about gutsy two-year-olds. He has won with a bunch of them. Last year the yard, which Michael runs with the “great support’’ of his father, Michael, and his girlfriend, Siobhan, won 11 races, seven of them with two-year-olds.