'I was blown away by this place' - meet the man behind Economics and a breeding revival in Yorkshire

As Brian O’Rourke entered the gates of Copgrove Hall Stud for the first time, he had an epiphany.

Nearly all of Yorkshire’s great nurseries have faded into a history which stretches as far back as the thoroughbreds's very genesis, when the Darley Arabian resided at Aldby Park and the Byerley Turk at Goldsborough Hall, near Knaresborough.

In the same neck of the woods as Goldsborough Hall, a first sight of Copgrove was enough to persuade O'Rourke, who had been the managing director of the National Stud for more than eight years, to take over the post of running an estate belonging to the late owner-breeder Guy Reed’s trust.