Jonathan Irwin, who has died at the age of 82, was a gregarious Eton-educated optimist who became a pivotal figure in Irish horseracing and bloodstock and later, along with his second wife Mary Ann O’Brien, became even better known as the founder of the respite charity, the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
Sam Curling remembers Ventana Canyon all right. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t at Cheltenham in 1996 when the horse that his father Peter owned in partnership with Philip Myerscough won the Arkle by 20 lengths, he was too young to go. But he remembers the excitement, he remembers the celebrations. He remembers how big a winner at the Cheltenham Festival was.