THE conversation with Mick Winters goes as it normally does, with plenty of colour and insight and right-angled branches, as the rapid line of patter keeps up with a mind that one suspects never stops generating ideas. No surprise he is a light sleeper.

The writer is sitting in the car park at Listowel on the evening of the Guinness Kerry National. Winters is completing the evening routine around the yard on the other end of the line.