Long and winding road to the top table on a Classic weekend
Richard Forristal meets the hard-working Kildare trainer
Just before Christmas, Mick Halford lost one of the stabilising forces in his life when his father died. A popular figure on the Curragh, Halford snr – also Mick – was a farrier by trade, as are others in the clan.
The man who will today saddle Ballygallon Stud’s Irishcorrespondent in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and tomorrow the Aga Khan’s Rehana – both home-breds – in the fillies’ equivalent, briefly tried his hand at the family business.
“I used to tell my father that I had a harder neck than I had a back,” Halford recalls fondly. “I wasn’t built for the job.”
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