IN a field in Kildare, five retired racehorses quietly graze. It’s mid-March. Horsemen pass by.

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On a racetrack in the Cotswolds, it’s mid-March, over a span of seven years, three of these horses stretched out, up the famous Cheltenham hill, for festival glory.

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In a field in Kildare, five old horses graze. There’s almost a decade of Cheltenham history here.

If you pooled all the money won by punters on the back of their exploits, you’d have enough to save Kempton Park.

A visit to the Irish National Stud gives an immediate understanding of the great expanse of the Irish thoroughbred industry and the stud’s links through it. The handsome Dubawi stallion Worthadd raced in Italy, England, France, Germany, Canada and the US, here he is attended to by students from Germany and New Zealand. Beside him, Free Eagle is back from Australia for our breeding season. Mares with their new born foals have American classic winners as their sires.

But for these weeks, it’s the pinnacle of jump racing, Cheltenham, that is foremost in our minds. And the affection for its former heroes brings us here.

Six times festival Queen, Quevega, is nursing her lovely Walk In The Park foal, only 12 hours old but prancing around. Those three white feet might one day step on that Cotswolds turf.

And in a paddock down the other end are more old heroes. Today, as in Philip Larkin’s poem At Grass.

Almanacked, their names live; they

Have slipped their names, and stand at ease,

They’re known by new names here. They could be part of Leona’s gang, hustlers out for action. Beefy, Kicks, Hurricane, Hardy, Riteso. Here come the boys!

The Legends at the Irish National Stud - Beef Or Salmon and Sinead Hyland, Hurricane Fly and Niamh O'Brien, Hardy Eustace and Bobby Kehoe, Rite Of Passage and Damian Fitton, Kicking King and Conor Ryan

Yard foreman Leona Harmon now tends to the needs of the retired legends at the Irish National Stud. When I visit, Kicking King and Beef Or Salmon are inside awaiting the farrier. Out in the paddock, a bay head perks up as he hears our approach. Hardy Eustace thinks treats.

“They stay out day and night, are fed twice a day. They prefer to be out, we never had them in last year. I look after them from June to January,” Leona goes through the routine, she knows them all well by now.

“Beefcakes is my favourite, he’s such a character,” Leona laughs. “He’s even made it on the Late Late Show when they were launching his book. Ryan was so afraid of him, we were the last on, about 10 past 11 and he was so tired and they thought he was going to wee on the cables, but he was so quiet he just stood there.”

BABYSITTER

“He’s a great babysitter for Kicks now that Moscow died. He looks after him cos Hurricane was kind of picking on him a bit.”

Beef Or Salmon is now 21. He made five consecutive trips to Cheltenham. He fell the first time in 2003 when sent off at 5/1 in Best Mate’s second Gold Cup. It was generally accepted by the end, that unlike virtually every other Irish-born, he wasn’t too keen to hear the word Cheltenham. Leopardstown was where his legend lies. Timmy Murphy, Paul Carberry, Andy Mac shared his big days. It shouldn’t be forgotten though, that on the second of his five runs in the Gold Cup, he was only beaten three and a half lengths in Best Mate’s third Gold Cup.

Hurricane Fly is the new recruit, he has spent his first year here, with plenty of public appearances to keep him lively. He has also settled in well. Far from the “nutjob” Ruby Walsh once called him, now 13, he is well behaved.

“He’s just a different horse, but he’s all go. Real inquisitive, watching everything. We were a little bit apprehensive about him coming,” Sinead Hyland recalls, “We have so many tourists and they are up at the fence, we didn’t know how that was going to work but if he’s not interested in saying hello to you, he won’t come up.”

He came with a bit of attitude - so would you if you’d won two Champion Hurdles and 22 Grade 1 races. He wanted to be the boss. “With Hurricane, he just picked on Kicking King, so we had to pull him out.”

Beef Or Salmon then shared a few tips on retired racehorse behaviour with Hurricane.

“After Beefy and Hurricane were together, after a week or two we put them in with the other lads and they all gelled, there wasn’t a bother on them, yer man had relaxed, trying to get his position in the field with them all,” Leona recalls.

Hardy wasn’t fazed by the newcomer. “This lad’s a lovely horse, he loves going to shows, he looks after Rite Of Passage who’s the most timid of them, he’s sort of back of the class, he’s quiet, sort of follow the leaders.”

JIZZED UP

Leona knows Hurricane’s ways well by now. “Once you pull him out on the avenue he get all jizzed up, and if you go to put the belly straps on, his hind legs can nearly reach your head. He is so quick, and he goes to bite you then as well.”

Kicking King is 19. He finished second in the Supreme in 2003, the same place in the Arkle the following year before his famous Gold Cup win for Barry Geraghty and Tom Taaffe in 2005.

He and Moscow Flyer, Geraghty’s other famous partner, were best mates. “He really missed Moscow,” Leona remembers. Like Nicky Henderson’s tale of Simonsig and Triolo D’Alene’s constant companionship, they were buddies.

Hardy Eustace is 20. For seven successive years from 2003 to 2009, this week he headed to Cheltenham. It’s strange to think that the two men who were with him in that first festival hour of success are no longer with us. He won the 2003 Sun Alliance Hurdle with Kieran Kelly in the saddle and Dessie Hughes welcoming him home. This spritely old horse has outlived his two comrades in arms.

His two Champion Hurdles stand out for his determination, out front all the way, getting the better of that duel with Harchibald and Brave Inca. He finished third and fourth the next two years, tried the Stayers in 2008 and finished his Cheltenham career behind Punjabi in the Champion in 2009.

HARD TO CATCH

“He’s a lovely gentleman of a horse, he settled in well, at the beginning he was really tricky, we couldn’t catch him.” Hardy hard to catch? Wasn’t that why we loved him?. Hard to catch, hard to pass. “When they come out of racing they are a bit like that but he settled in great,” Leona says.

Rite Of Passage is 13, he has no Cheltenham wins though he started favourite for two festival races. He hangs out the back as the two Champion Hurdle winners come for carrots. He finished third in the Champion Bumper to Dunguib and third to Peddlers Cross in the Neptune on his to visits to Prestbury Park. His glory day was on the flat at Royal Ascot in June. He can hold his own in this exalted company.

“Rite of Passage is kind of “sure look, I’ll go along with you all, I’m not as famous as you all, I’ve done my bit, I’m faster than you all,” Leona describes his personality.

Old friends and companions come to visit. There’s Geraghtys, Taaffes, Hourigans, Craigs, for Hardy, “Conor would be over and Sandra,” Kirsten Reed also calls down “a couple of times a year” with treats.

Sinead recalls a tale of Philip Hobbs at Punchestown hopping over a fence to see Florida Pearl on parade, having been underbidder on him as a youngster. Richard Dunwoody’s mother also came to see the old horse that had brought her son many victories.

They are all happy in retirement. In the summer they share adjoining paddocks with the mares and new crop of foals. “They love watching the foals. It’s a let-down of their whole minds,” Leona continued.

Each still has their own fans. Vintage Crop got attention from all the Australian visitors, Beef Or Salmon’s name intrigues US visitors. “When people come, they want to see Hurricane more, they do, but they all have their own fan base, own super fans, the older generation, sort of men in their 60s remember Beef Or Salmon and Kicking King, whereas the younger generation are going, where’s Hurricane? He’s very good with tourists, he’s not taking fingers off them! They can pat him.”

They know Leona well, and what she brings. “I feed them twice a day, they’re watching for the jeep, they nearly know what time it is.

“You know what’s on next week?” Sinead asks as the two former champions, with four hurdle crowns between them, crunch carrots over the fence.

It’s mid-March, Cheltenham week. Five retired racehorses graze in a field in Kildare.

Horsemen, call in. Bring some carrots. Say thanks for the memories.

You can visit the legends at the Irish National Stud seven days a week from now until November.