WHEN Sarah Alexandra Band travelled from Canada to Ireland in 1972, she became the first of 18 students from that country to undertake the Irish National Stud Thoroughbred Stud Management Course. The most recent member of that group was Michaela Kemp in 2020.

Nineteen students did the course in 1972, its second year, and Sarah was the only one of that year’s intake not from Ireland. She also had the distinction of winning the silver medal, a new innovation that year.