Sir, – Frank McNally suggests that if the horse Mill Reef could have spoken "it would have been with the flat accent of his native Kildare" (An Irishman's Diary, 8November 8th). Surely the response you always get when asking horses where they come from is, more specifically, Naas? – Yours, etc,
KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Just as the jumps season is getting going, your excellent columnist Frank McNally morphs two of the greatest racehorses ever into one. Within the space of two sentences Mill House becomes Mill Reef. Mill House was indeed famous for his epic jumping duels with the peerless Arkle but Mill Reef and his great rival Brigadier Gerard confined their racing careers to the flat.
I don’t think that even Frank McNally would find a hint of Kildare brogue in Mill Reef, as to the best of my knowledge he was in fact born in Virginia, not the Cavan version but the state in the US at the home of his owner, Paul Mellon. – Yours, etc,
TERRY CONNAUGHTON,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.