'It's mind-blowing when you see them go on and win on the biggest stages'

End-of-year awards by their very nature focus on the headline makers, the success stories that created front-page news or generated recurring column inches, but achievement comes clothed in many guises. Not every racehorse can be Baaeed and not every stallion can be Galileo.

Zebadiah never inspired a flurry of social media hype in a brief juvenile career that included a Newbury maiden victory over subsequent Group 3 winners Recorder and Danehill Kodiac for Richard Hannon, and among thoroughbred breeders he's not exactly well-known either, with the Return of Mares recording he covered three mares in both 2020 and 2021 at the McCarthy family's Meelin Stud in west Cork.

Those bare facts do not hint at Zebadiah's story, which is one of triumph in unexpected places, earning accolades on stages a little different to where they were intended to shine.