WHEN we heard the sad news of Sheikh Hamdan’s passing this week, the Derrinstown Stud team were left feeling very numb as he was such an incredible man to work for.

Sheikh Hamdan purchased Derrinstown in 1982 and I started here in 1984, arriving the same day as the stallion Wassl. Over the next 35 years the estate mushroomed to 11 farms, all in the Maynooth-Celbridge area except Lumville Stud located outside Edenderry. He owned 2,000 acres and employed 110 people.