BILL Baxter gave visiting trainer Warren Greatrex another big Punchestown Festival success last Saturday and joining in the celebrations were the horse’s breeders, Larry McCormack and Mary Fanning of Quinnsboro Stud in Monasterevin, Co Kildare.

Mary, a former producer of RTÉ’s Nationwide, said it was the first time Larry had been present to see one of his home-breds win.

“Larry represents what it means to be a proper farmer and breeder,” Mary told us. “He always puts his animals first, never looks for accolades, and is respectful of his mares and what they have given him. Mary Fanning McCormack is the named breeder and, while I have done my bit, Larry is the man who foaled, cajoled and prepared his stock.”

Larry has bred approximately 30 winners from a small band of mares and they include the Galway Plate and Cheltenham Festival winner Finger Onthe Pulse. “But Larry was always at home on the farm watching the races on a television in the barn or calving shed,” Mary says. When the Tom Taaffe-trained gelding won at Cheltenham the runner-up was Barber Shop, owned by Queen Elizabeth. Asked by a local paper how he felt about getting the better of the British monarch, Larry said: “She’s a lovely woman, she’ll have another day. Tom did a fantastic job, but I can’t delay now as I’m feeding bulls!”

Larry was calving when the Pat Fahy-trained Quadco won the Martell Champion NH flat race in Aintree by 16 lengths in 2000. Two years later Quadco stormed home in Galway taking the GPT Handicap under Peter Fahey by 14 lengths, but Larry was rolling silage ground.

Mary also recalled the time she won a trip up the Danube River and arranged the timing to suit Larry. “However, one of the foals got a virus, and the horseman politely apologised, telling me he could not leave him. That foal was Bill Baxter!”

Larry watched Bill Baxter win the Topham Chase at Aintree two years ago from the calving shed.

When the breeder finally made it to the races last Saturday to see the horse win, he shook the hand of Warren Greatrex and jockey Harry Bannister. He stood in for a photograph and then went home to feed calves.

Mary reported: “Later that evening, Larry did his rounds checking on the retired mares, a band of oldies that includes the world’s oldest Be My Guest, still alive at 31. For Larry, it is not just about producing quality and winning; it is and has always been about the horse. A proper farmer breeder!”