Meet the young Italian who went from studying psychology in Milan to training a Classic hope in County Down
It’s a gloriously sunny autumn Saturday afternoon at Leopardstown racecourse and the unseasonal warmth is delighting a large gathering in the crowded parade ring. The field for the first race of the newly rebranded Irish Champions Festival is about go to post and many of the great and the good of international racing have found their way to County Dublin to join the fun.
The Listed Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes for two-year-old fillies is the least valuable contest of a lucrative card, but there’s a hundred grand in prize-money to be won, comparable with the best purse on offer at Ascot the same afternoon.
The ring is thronged with O’Briens, Bolgers and Harringtons along with the usual massed ranks of Coolmore-istas. All assembled in happy anticipation for a weekend of top-class sport.
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Published on 17 September 2023inInterviews
Last updated 08:13, 18 September 2023
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- Rod Street: 'Racing spends a lot of time talking to itself in a bubble - we're not blessed with people who inhabit the wider world'
- 'There's a time to be serious because it's a multi-million-pound business - but you've got to have a laugh'
- 'All of us who ply our trade training horses are dreamers - to put so much into it you must have a dream'
- 'There was a moment of rage - but he's a magnificent horse and it suits me that he's passed under the radar'
- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'