CON Marnane’s visit to Italy in 2012 to attend the SGA September Selected Sale was to yield an unintended consequence, but a highly pleasurable one.

His purchases at the sale included a daughter of Red Rocks (Galileo), a half-sister at the time to two winners, the better of the pair being Dandy Boy (Danetime) who was runner-up to Beethoven in the Group 3 Desmond Stakes at Leopardstown and a six-time winner in Ireland and the UAE. Dandy Boy had been bought by Marnane as a yearling too and was trained by his brother David for Malih Al Basti.