'I for sure didn’t want to breed sprinters' - meet the small breeders whose crowd-pleasing pair have ripped up the script

If there’s such a thing as 'lucky owners’ then it could be assumed that Lord and Lady Blyth have had the largest slice of all.

Within the last calendar year they achieved something which they believe might be unprecedented, at least in recent times, by owning and breeding both a Group 1 Flat winner and a Grade 1 hurdler, a feat made all the more extraordinary because they derive from a base of broodmares which numbered only four.

Except, as anyone trying to crack the game will acknowledge, great racehorses such as Not So Sleepy, who added a second Fighting Fifth to his name in December at the ripe old age of 11, and the Goodwood Cup surprise package Quickthorn, do not materialise at the click of the fingers.