'It broke my heart - but you have to pay the bills and sacrifice the good ones'

The courage to listen to instinct has rewarded the Lacy family with two exciting colts and a mare who is lifting their spirits.

Barry Lacy and his father Tom, the former jockey and trainer known throughout Ireland as TF Lacy, ignored one of the commandments of breeding when sending their young Lope De Vega mare to new sire Mehmas not once but twice. The results of those decisions are last weekend's easy Brocklesby Stakes winner Persian Force and his year-older brother Gubbass, who won the Weatherbys Super Sprint last season.

"Gut feeling told me to do it," says Barry Lacy of the decision to use Mehmas for Vida Amorosa. "I loved the horse and the vibe I was getting from him, I love that Machiavellian line in his pedigree and the mare has Machiavellian too so that really worked for me.