Istabraq

Istabraq was a horse of a lifetime for us, an incredible horse really. He was lucky to be owned by JP and Noreen and ridden by Charlie.

We were just after going to Ballydoyle when he came. John Durkan, lord have mercy on him, asked us to look after him for a season when he was getting treatment for Leukemia and that’s how he ended up coming to us. He came to Timmy Hyde’s from the sales and then over to us.

Pat Keating and Pete Morrissey used to bring him racing and Anita and Davy Clifford used to look after him, Tommy Murphy did an awful lot of work with his legs, day in, day out and he was ridden by Pat Lillis every day so they were the team of people around him. And like I said, a horse of a lifetime and we’re all so sorry to hear of his passing.

He was a massive part of our family. The lads were only small, growing up around that time, so they would have remembered him from going racing to see his races all the way through.

Aidan O’Brien