From motherhood to the winner's enclosure: the remarkable story of Braganza

Braganza's debut hurdles success at Thurles at the end of last month was nothing out of the ordinary for a Willie Mullins-trained runner, but the mare's story is not that of your run of the mill maiden hurdle winner.

The six-year-old daughter of Nathaniel was making her first start for almost four years, in that time having given birth to a filly by Champs Elysees.

When Sharon Noonan and her husband Robert went looking for a racehorse of their own, having been involved in syndicates previously, their neighbour Eamonn Phelan of Derryluskin Stud pointed them in the direction of a three-year-old Nathaniel filly in the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale. The only catch? She was in foal.