THREE months ago, while driving up and down to the Curragh, during the trainers’ course, I had no idea when I would even have my first runner. At that time, I couldn’t ever have foreseen that I would end up training a bumper winner at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival. Karate Kid, just my second runner since taking out the licence, gave me a first-ever winner when landing the closing race on the Friday.

I didn’t come from a racing background, although my father Michael would have gone to point-to-points and local race meetings. Other than that, I had no real exposure to horses until later in life. I would have been in my early twenties when my dad arrived home from the mart one afternoon with a thoroughbred mare.