RTÉ journalist Mary Fanning McCormack, Nationwide’s go-to-reporter when it comes to all matters racing and equestrian, had the pleasure of seeing a horse she bred win over the National fences at Aintree on Friday.

Over the shorter trip of two-miles, five-furlongs in the Randox Supports Race Against Dementia Topham Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap), the Warren Greatrex-trained Bill Baxter (20/1) gave an exhibition of jumping under Sam Twiston-Davies en route to beating Fantastic Lady (25/1) by a length and three-quarters.

“This is the second winner we’ve bred at the Aintree Festival,” revealed Mary, the other half of the ‘we’ being husband Larry McCormack. “The first one was 23 years ago would you believe, Quadco, who won the Grade 2 mares’ bumper for Pat Fahey. Buying her dam, Anega, was really the start of the whole thoroughbred thing as we began moving away from breeding sport horses. I did Bill Baxter as a foal and he was an absolute gentleman.”

A 2016 gelding by Milan out of Blossom Rose, by Roselier, Bill Baxter has passed through the hands of Wexford natives Scott Mernagh (the former event rider) and point-to-point trainer Denis Murphy who saddled the grey to finish second in a four-year-old maiden at Moira in October 2020 on his sole start in this country. Shortly afterwards, he was sold into the Greatrex yard and Friday’s win was his sixth in total and his fourth over fences.

“From four mares over the years, we’ve bred something like 30 winners, four of them at Grade 1 level, but we retired from breeding last year. Larry, who works a mixed farm of cattle and horses, loves his stock and said that as the old mares looked after us, we now have to look after them. There are two thoroughbreds on the farm who are aged 32 and 27, and a Welsh pony who’s 32!”

Mary, who is a director of the Irish Horse Welfare Trust, and Larry had a lot of success on the showing scene working with Bernie and Gerry Stack and twice won the thoroughbred mare championship at the RDS. The Dublin Horse Show is one of Mary’s favourite events of the year and it doesn’t matter what topic she is asked to cover, be it the Pony Club games which it was last year, or Grand Prix jumping, she just loves the whole show.

Former Limerick show jumper and event rider Terence Leonard bred the Arctic Cosmos mare Apple Away who Randox Grand National-winning trainer Lucinda Russell sent out to win Friday’s Winners Wear Cavani Sefton Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) in the hands of Stephen Mulqueen. The winning six-year-old, who was bringing up a hat trick on Friday, was owned and trained by Terence when, on her third and final start between the flags, she won a mares’ maiden at Ballyknock on April 13th last year.