CO Meath husband and wife Gary Carroll and Joanne Quirke had a hectic few days last week but all the travel proved well worthwhile when, on Friday at Royal Ascot, Gary recorded his first Group 1 success in the Coronation Stakes on the Joe Murphy-trained Cercene.

Gary had partnered the 2022 Australia filly on all of her previous six starts but his connection with the chesnut goes back a lot further as he and Joanne broke the filly and did all the pre-training with her at their Garadice yard before she was sent down to Murphy, a long-term supporter of the jockey.