THE Tetrarch Stakes is the feature race at the Curragh on Monday and this year the race has been named in honour of my father, Dick McCormick. From Summerhill in Co Meath, he was The Tetrarch’s work rider in 1913 before going on to become a classic-winning trainer in his own right.

Trained in Stockbridge, Hampshire, by Galway man Atty Persse, The Tetrarch only raced at two years and won all seven of his races, with Steve Donoghue on board. According to Donoghue, in his autobiography Donoghue Up, Dick McCormick was “the only other man ever to sit on The Tetrarch’s back long enough to stay there”.