I FIRST chatted to respected bloodstock breeder and consigner Juliet Minton across a noisy table at this year’s Randox Grand National Weights Lunch held at the magnificent St. George’s Hall in Liverpool.

While finishing off our dessert, Juliet and I became embroiled in a not particularly glamorous conversation on the virtues and pitfalls of worming foals en masse. Throughout our discussion, I was struck by Juliet’s forensic approach to the care of her foals. I was keen to discover more about her process for preparing foals for the sales ring and just what it takes to breed, raise and sell a foal as good as Penkenna Princess, the cracking Pivotal filly beaten by a nose in the Irish 1000 Guineas in 2005.