'When you have that sort of success, the Lads put their arms around you' - how a cider-drinking American became part of Coolmore's empire

Aidan O'Brien was still in the air when he won Newmarket's opening race. Also missing were the three Lads but among those listening to Ryan Moore's debrief was an American gentleman, not long back from the pub, sporting a summery hat and dark glasses. What he then had to say was both delightful and enlightening.

With horses to work on a busy morning, O'Brien delayed his trip to Newmarket. His feet were on Suffolk soil in time to see Abraham Lincoln finish second in the Superlative Stakes but not when that horse's nearest Curragh victim Haffner made it second-time lucky in an often informative maiden. 

One of Haffner's owners, Louisville-based businessman and philanthropist Brook Smith, was making his July course debut in what is also his first season racing European horses alongside Coolmore, in whose 2024 Breeders' Cup Classic hero Sierra Leone he was a shareholder.