PRYDWEN, a 60th birthday present from my wife, provided a rather poignant success in winning the Kingdom Gold Cup at Killarney last week. For the last six years, my brother Ian and I had held ambitions of having a winner at that August meeting. Sadly, Ian passed away less than three weeks ago, so never got to see that dream come to fruition. 

Growing up in Dublin in the late sixties, I didn’t have much interest in racing. Although my dad Joe would have followed the horses, I was mad into rugby. That would have been my main sport right up into my teenage years. It was only when I met my future wife Mary at 17, that I started to take an interest in racing. Her family were keen racegoers and I would have attended Leopardstown over Christmas with Mary and her dad John. After my Leaving Cert, I studied Civil Engineering in Bolton Street. In 1984, as soon as I completed my exams, Mary and I headed off to London. Like everyone, it was initially just supposed to be for a year but having built a life in England, we never moved back.