TWENTY-ONE years ago, Whytemount Stud’s Ronnie O’Neill went to the Goffs February Sale, and spent €9,500 on the four-year-old filly Anno Mundi (Red Ransom). She has shown some form in France at three.

Ronnie took her home and came close to landing her a winner, but bad luck intervened and an injury forced her retirement to stud. She had good and bad luck at stud. Anno Mundi died while foaling her fourth produce, and only filly. This was Anno Whyte, and like her older siblings she was a daughter of the resident stallion, Stowaway (Slip Anchor). Famed for being the busiest stallion in Ireland and Britain at one time, he was to go on to be a hugely successful sire, and a tribute to Ronnie O’Neill’s astuteness.