Hermes Allen already a special delivery for Caroline McCaldin

Some horses just mean that bit more than others, for all that Caroline McCaldin insists her heart is on her sleeve every time a member of her small team is out on the track.

Hermes Allen, the exciting young prospect she sold to Paul Nicholls last year, is the one with the particular capacity to trigger those emotions, so much so that his commanding victory in the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham's November meeting caused her to briefly lose all control of her senses.

"I cried from the run to the last hurdle, and I cried the whole way up the run-in and I cried past the line and the girl that was with me had to tell me to wise up and stop crying because it was embarrassing," she says. "I don’t mean single tears, I was a mess."

McCaldin’s association with the five-year-old son of Poliglote came about unexpectedly through her father Wilson Dennison, the renowned Northern Irish breeder and trader of young stock including the likes of Yorkhill, Blaklion and Ballyandy.

Dennison tends to buy foals and he had been recruited from France, out of a Auteuil Grade 3 hurdle winner and bred by Bruno Vagne, whose products with an Allen suffix include the late Champion Hurdle star Espoir D’Allen and multiple Grade 1 winner Envoi Allen.

Hermes Allen made an impressive £350,000 in the ring last yearCredit: Debbie Burt

"I live about 50 miles away from Dad, who sent two two-year-olds down and asked me to graze them," explains McCaldin. "He didn’t ask me for them back, so when it came to their three-year-old careers, we broke them and did a bit of homework. Then, I wouldn’t give him back!

"We were just tiddling about, I’m not hard on them, and we ran in a schooling race early in his four-year-old year at Moira. The young lad that rode him, Carl Hughes, loved him. He just kept making ground up all the way along and won a schooling hurdle.

"Because no-one knows what’s in those races, no-one paid any attention to it, but I did and Tom McMahon, who works here, said to me, 'That's a good horse'. We put him away for a summer’s grass because he was quite small, we wanted to fatten him up a bit and then we brought him back."

McCaldin was pretty encouraged by Hermes Allen’s third on his debut in a four-year-old maiden at Rathcannon just over a year ago, but it was on his second outing three weeks later at Kirkistown where he took another big step forward with a dominant five-length win.

"Noel McParlan rode him and it was Noel’s confidence that made him go out in front," she recalls. "Noel told me what he was going to do, it’s all down to him and as soon as he came over the line I said he’d be for sale."

Hermes Allen realised an impressive £350,000 when bought by Aiden Murphy and Nicholls, the third highest price achieved at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale last year.

He has now entered one of the highest-profile partnerships in all of jumping, including Sir Alex Ferguson and John Hales, opening his account for the champion trainer with an effortless win at Stratford a few weeks ago.

It just so happened that McCaldin was at Cheltenham on other duty, assisting with a draft of the Dennison horses heading to the ring for the November Sale. The sight of Hermes Allen taking the Grade 2 in flawless fashion from what had looked a high-quality field was a very pleasant bonus.

She says: "I know it’s not saying much but probably he’s the best horse we’ve ever had in the yard, we couldn’t get him pulled up working, he always jumped like a stag. He was so easy, everything came easy to him.

"There were nerves when the flag dropped at Cheltenham because I wanted so badly for him to do so well for his new connections.

"Apparently Cheltenham did a poll for the best performance of the November meeting and Hermes Allen won that as well."

The couple of years in which Hermes Allen lived outside McCaldin's home, not to mention his rare ability, evidently left a very fond impression and there aren't a dozen more of him in her County Down yard just at the moment, although the 16 boxes are full as the point-to-point season continues.

Many of the horses participate in the more traditionally amateur side of the sport, those slightly older types for the winners' races and hunter chases which provide its fabric, with occasional runners under rules in both Britain and Ireland. She will have the odd other youngster to aim towards the commercial route, too.

"Hermes Allen was our first four-year-old winner and I wasn’t expecting to ever be in that position, I like having runners and having fun, but it just happened," McCaldin concludes.

"I’m very proud of what he’s done and I hope he goes on to brilliant things."

Read more

The world's best racehorse settles into life as the world's most valuable stallion

'He was a no-brainer' - punchy pinhook sees Kingman colt top trade at €550,000

The Doctor will see you now: Arqana again falls under the spell of dynamite Dino