The birth of the Irish Farmers Journal in 1948 coincided with an unprecedented domination of major National Hunt races by Vincent O’Brien. Cottage Rake scored a hat trick of Cheltenham Gold Cups (1948-50), Hatton’s Grace did likewise in the Champion Hurdle (1949-51) as a prelude to Vincent’s unique Grand National hat trick, with three different horses. In 1958, Curragh trainer JM Rogers saddled the first Irish-trained winner of the Derby since Orby in 1907 when Hard Ridden triumphed.

A year previously, Vincent O’Brien had claimed Ireland’s first St Leger with Ballymoss. In 1958, Ballymoss scored another first for Ireland – in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. In the same decade, Curragh trainer, PJ Prendergast, achieved a near-monopoly of the top two-year-old races at Royal Ascot, Goodwood and York.

Paddy’s change of emphasis to the classic vintage saw him become the first Irish-based trainer to head the Flat table in Britain in 1963, which he did for three years in succession.

On the jumping front Arkle, trained by Tom Dreaper and ridden by Pat Taaffe, was embarking on his Gold Cup hat trick, becoming the greatest steeplechaser of all time.

Just as Paddy Prendergast had changed his focus from juvenile to older horses, so Vincent O’Brien had forsaken jumpers since moving to Ballydoyle, training increasingly for wealthy American patrons, yielding Derby wins with Larkspur in 1962, followed by Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, The Minstrel and Golden Fleece.

Irish Sweesp Derby

On a broader front, Irish racing was transformed in 1962 with the initial Irish Sweeps Derby; the richest race in Europe. From being a backwater, Irish flat racing rivalled the standards set by Britain and France. Guinness responded by sponsoring the Irish Oaks. While both suddenly became prime targets for overseas challengers it confirmed the heightened standard of Flat racing in Ireland.

In the bloodstock breeding arena finance minister Charles J Haughey caused a revolution in his 1969 Finance Act. Income from stallion fees became tax exempt. The principal beneficiary was Coolmore Stud in Tipperary, owned by Vincent O’Brien, his son in-law John Magnier and Robert Sangster. Their ambition to stand potential classic stallions rather than sell them to America reached its apogee with the feats of Sadler’s Wells and more recently the phenomenal Galileo.

In 1973, a seismic transformation took place within the basic framework of Irish racing.

It was the inauguration of RACE, the Racing Academy & Centre of Education on the Curragh. Valentine Lamb wrote in The Irish Field: “Many will consider this innovation is long overdue... apprentice jockeys would still be little more than a tiny irritant in the miniscule social conscience of the racing fraternity.”

If five racecourses fell prey to development in Baldoyle, Mullingar, Phoenix Park, Tralee and Tuam, the survivors received substantial structural investment and dramatically increased prize money following the creation at the millennium of the semi-state body, Horse Racing Ireland (HRI).

Vincent O’Brien, champion trainer in Ireland 14 times, retired in 1994, intending that Ballydoyle become a deer farm. John Magnier thought otherwise. Raising the capital to buy his father-in-law out, John Magnier replaced him in Ballydoyle with his youthful namesake, Aidan O’Brien, on the basis of the young man’s extraordinary number of winners trained in just a few years. Success was instant and enduring. Desert King became Aidan’s first Irish Derby winner in 1997. His tally now stands at 15, including a sequence of seven. His Epsom count has outstripped his predecessor’s. But Vincent had ‘The Rake’.

Aubrey’s up, the money’s down

The frightened bookies shake

Come on me lads and give a cheer

Begod ‘tis Cottage Rake!