Two of the aims of these pre-season trainer profiles are to emphasise the rich history of harness racing in Ireland and also to report the sheer magnitude of the sport in many countries throughout the world.

If it’s history you are after, look no further than the fabled Murdock family from the Market area in Belfast. Clan patriarch Jim Murdock kindly loaned the Irish Field, at Horse Show time last year, a beautiful old photograph of his grandfather Henry Hawkins showing a standardbred at the RDS in 1907. Debates can wage between trotting men as to how long they are in the game, but few can produce such concrete proof. Wouldn’t you know the horse in the photo (Killarney) looks a sharp tool.