that is that would always have been Katie and Nina's opinion

Yeah and they're the best two pre-Rachel and I actually did an interview with Noel Mead recently because it was it emerged that Nina had asked Noel could she turn conditional and he said no you're better off as an amateur because at the time he had Noel Madden as his conditional and she would get the plumb rides as an amateur.

But also I then asked him with the benefit of Rachel having gone now and had Nina come along after would you have had a different perspective? Now he was adamant that the answer would still be the same.

I think it's different now because when Rachel turned I thought she was crazy because I thought Nina was the best I've ever seen.

Most naturally talented I still stand by that but it's the falls that Rachel took And the way she reacted to all the adversity through her career that made her better.

That isn't a gender thing.

That's a human thing.

only a few

And we begin with Jane giving her reflections and her insight to life as a Group 1 winning, double Group 1 winning buyer and racing manager.

It was the day of dreams, wasn't it? I'll be honest, when Green Empress was second to Sun Goddess in the Moyglair, we were all a bit deflated.

The ground was a little bit soft with the Curragh, and we just presumed, Ark Day being Ark Day, that it wouldn't be an option for us to go there.

So immediately after the Moygair, we hatched a plan to go to Keeneland.

And two weeks out from the Boozak, we looked at the weather forecast, and we were thinking there was no rain in Paris.

So we left her in at the forfeit stage, uh, every day, taking the weather forecast to that Philly.

And it became increasingly likely that we could run there.

Her

How did it feel?

The family have given me a great deal of responsibility and that's not lost on me.

They could have had anyone.

Yeah, it's unbelievable.

I won't lie, I've just gone in there to try and buy a filly and I was ready.

You were exploded.

I was in position and a bunch of men just stood in front of me.

you've assessed this catalogue, and every year, look, you turn up to book one, you're not going to say, oh, the catalogue looks a bit thin, these are the best pedigrees around that are available for sale, so of course the catalogue's going to be nice, and you expect there to be a lot of nice horses, but what were your expectations of the sale as a whole when you walked in here, in terms of what it would yield?

And who better to give us a quick spin through the card than Jane Mangan, our old podcast friend.

It's a good day of racing at the Curragh this Saturday, even though the rain may change conditions.

Three stakes races, including the Round Tower for two-year-olds, were Great Barrier Reef, who was a non-runner in the pre-morny at Deauville just a couple of days ago.

He will be back under Ryan Moore and is likely favoured for that two-year-old race.

The Snow Fairy Stakes has a 15-runner field, a big field for that nine-for-a-long contest.

Interestingly, two British Raiders coming across, including John Galston's Miss Scott, who is intriguingly the mount of Christophe Soumian.

As for the home team, I think Joe Murphy's pivotal attack will relish these soft ground conditions.

I won't ask you how old you were at the time because that's not the polite thing to do, but You were steeped in a rating family anyway, but how much of a formative experience was your dad winning the national?

I think it was a game changer for, for the family.

Yeah.

My mom used to ride him out.

He wasn't, he wasn't straightforward.

Like he, he wasn't one of those horses when he retired that he, he, when he was retired, he wasn't written again.

My mom tried to go hunting and cross country with him and he used to bury her.

But I suppose one of the questions, the obvious experience itself is dreadful, but how did it sort of shape you? Did it toughen you up a lot or...?

Uh, Jane, we, we know more of what the Irish Oaks field is going to look like then, and do we know more of the, uh, of the Ballydoyle team?

Yeah, we know about the whole field basically now because obviously the Irish Oaks closes, um, so far in advance that at this time of talking, there are still 65 in, in the race.

We have confirmations this morning.

Ballydoyle are leaving in five, but crucially, none of the five are Diamond Necklace.

So Beautify, Amelia Earhart, Cameo, Sugar Island, and Composing are all being left in with maybe the intention to run all five, uh, as Aidan O'Brien told us this morning.

Currently, Earth Shot is your 2/1 favorite, but that's with the likes of a Diamond Necklace left in and a Legacy Link, who obviously won't be running either.

Thundering On is in second-best.

But Jane, all, all of our, all of ours are too good to win over that far.

And we caught Jane Mangan as she was either about to board a flight or she's gone for an afternoon's plane spotting.

Hi, guys.

My best bet for Royal Ascot Week.

Well, I'm going to leave the tricky handicaps to the two experts, Mr. Timeform himself, Barber and Martin.

I'm going to go with an Irish contender for the Hampton Court, and that is Causeway.

Yes, he's obvious.

I was very impressed with what he did in the Gala Newell Stakes.

It's been a real journey with this great horse.

Yeah, it's a journey you hope you're only not even halfway.

It's immensely exciting to have a horse worthy of an entry in a gold cup.

I don't think psychologically we've gone there in our heads yet that it's happening until you're safely across the water and he's here himself.

But he's a good horse and I was on a panel recently where Dan Skelton gave Gray Dawning a good chance, well if Dan gives his horse a good chance then we have to say we have an each way chance.

It's a very deep race but we're very happy that he's good enough to come and I know my parents are very happy with him at home since he won here in January.

How has Chapman changed for you since you first came here? What changes have you seen to the meeting, the Irish challenge and the general experience?

I'm lucky every time I've been coming here, John.