Fergal Harford still optimistic that 2020 can be a vintage year

She’s All Vintage earned a minor footnote in racing’s miscellany on Tuesday when she ran at Down Royal just a few hours before her foal went into the ring at Tattersalls Ireland.

Had they fared more spectacularly - mother came in ninth in the Molson Coors Flat Race and son was led away unsold at €15,500 - then it might have gathered the attention of more than an eagle-eyed few, but Fergal Harford is optimistic this will not be the last we will hear of either of them.

Familiar, as any owner will be, that horses cost money regardless of whether they are running, the story is the result of an enterprising time-saving initiative.

"It's mad really, I bought the mare as a foal, trained her and rode her and she was second in what looked a good point-to-point a couple of years ago," he explains.

She's All Vintage's Milan foal was sent to the February National Hunt Sale

"Unfortunately she then got a leg. I thought she was a decent mare so I pinfired her and was going to give her loads of time to bring her back.

"My father came up with the idea, 'Why don’t you stick her in foal, she might do something for you?' I thought, 'What have we got to lose', she was going to be out at grass anyway, we’d be feeding her, so we might as well have something coming along. So we went to Milan and we had a lovely colt foal out of her."

With the colt weaned, She’s All Vintage went back into training with Harford’s friend Patrick Magee and, two years and a fortnight after her previous appearance, was ready to try again.

Sent off a 50-1 chance in a race won impressively by 66-1 shot Lady Heath, she actually led for most of the way under her owner before fading in the final couple of furlongs.

"She was going to need the run and I definitely think there’ll be a couple of races in her," he reports. "Heavy ground and a trip, she’ll be all right."

The genial Harford is a man who embodies racing’s Corinthian spirit. The 42-year-old has a butcher’s shop in Bailieborough, County Cavan, but, as the brother of trainer Gillian Callaghan and Noel Meade’s successful former amateur rider Greg Harford, has kept his own racing interest aflame.

His biggest moment to date has been winning in the same colours of the Black Steel Square Syndicate on Mad Brian, the useful staying chaser who ran in the Midlands and Kerry Nationals.

"It’s only a hobby to me and I just have a few horses at home that I break and pre-train," he says. "I suppose it’s been about 15 years, I’ve had only a few rides every year just for myself, horses of my own to have an interest.

Action man: Patrick McCann captured Fergal Harford parting company with Mad Brian in 2013Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"Patrick has only just got his licence out and we’ve bought shares in a few horses together. I said I’d give him the mare, in my lunch hour I tip out to him and ride her, and it works out pretty good."

He is not disheartened about the newest member of the stable returning home, either, explaining: "I put him in the sale because I thought he was a nice foal and might run into good money, but I was reluctant to sell him anyway as I think the mare will do something too."

Harford might send his colt off point-to-pointing, should no intrigued buyers of a truly active pedigree come out of the woodwork. Given that She’s All Vintage is only seven herself, perhaps the pair might continue their synchronicity and be running on the same day a few years from now.

"You wouldn’t know, it’s not impossible," he says. "I’d never heard of anyone else doing this, but it definitely didn’t take anything away from the mare. You wouldn’t even know to look at her that she’d had a foal."

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