‘Zabana is the best horse I have ever had by a country mile’

It was an October morning when Andy Lynch first saw Zabana. He arrived into the yard after being picked up at Goffs for €31,000 after running eight times on the Flat as a three-year-old and winning a Tramore maiden. An old romantic may try and tell you otherwise, but Lynch admits it wasn’t quite love at first sight.

“When I first saw him, he had a backbone on him like a sweeping brush and I said 'this fella needs to go out to the field straight away',” he recalls.

The giant son of Halling didn’t scream Grade 1 performer but therein lies the beauty of this game, as first impressions can make a fool of the most experienced of horsemen.