'If we knew what he'd go on to do, we could have had the house on him'

Sonnyboyliston’s gallant victory in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger was the pinnacle of quite a journey for the members of the Kildare Racing Club, a small venture which is just about the oldest of its kind in Ireland.

In the space of 15 months the chestnut has teleported himself from the lowest rungs of handicap company to what can still be loosely defined as a Classic, banking some £667,000 on the way.

None will have felt as deeply invested in the story as the organisation’s joint-founder Liam Clarke, a Curragh-based bloodstock agent who began a shared ownership venture in the mid-1980s simply as a bit of fun among friends.