John Durkan's name has a fitting legacy in Punchestown showdown of chasing talent

Sunday's John Durkan Punchestown Chase will mark a quarter of a century since the death of the fledgling trainer at the age of 31, two years after he was diagnosed with leukaemia just at the point when he was about to embark on a training career in Newmarket with Istabraq a cornerstone of his nascent team.

Durkan and Istabraq were both bursting with potential: the beautifully bred half-brother to the Derby winner Secreto, bought out of John Gosden's team by Timmy Hyde for his son-in-law to train for JP McManus, while Durkan's young life had been moulded towards the moment when he would take the keys to his own stables; and not any old yard but Green Lodge, one of the most historic in town where the former incumbent was Harry Thomson Jones of Al Bahathri and Tingle Creek fame.

Durkan had been shaped by his time as assistant and amateur rider to Oliver Sherwood and then Gosden, but his early formative years were even more significant. His racing education started in Ireland at the age of ten, when his father Bill took out a licence to train and the mare Anaglogs Daughter came into their lives. Small of stature but big of heart, she pounded her way to victories from Ascot to Cheltenham under the guidance of Ferdy Murphy who prepared the Durkan horses.