born 27 February 1970

Georg Söring, Hamburg, West Germany, film editor/short filmmaker

István Gyurity, birthplace unspecified, Hungarian actor

Julia Parker, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, actress

Kent Desormeaux, Maurice, Louisiana, three-time Kentucky Derby champion jockey

Patricia Petibon, Montargis, France, soprano

Rob Adams, St. Louis, Missouri, actor

Robert Quinn, birthplace unspecified, Irish director

Sava Lolov, birthplace unspecified, French actor

Wendy Eley, Dothan, Alabama, gospel programming producer

Today’s one of those cases where I have to choose not to reward a staggeringly successful person, so I can herald another deserving individual. In this case, that’s Kent Desormeaux, by any standard the leading horse-rider of our time. He was already in his sport’s Hall of Fame by the age of 34, if that gives you any idea. Still, to be that great, a jockey must have had to lose a lot of races, so today will be no different in that regard.

His resume is impressive, and includes stints as assistant director on two of the great Neil Jordan pictures, The Crying Game and Breakfast on Pluto. But the reason I’m acknowledging Robert Quinn as today’s Buaiteoir Inniu is for co-writing and directing Cré na Cille (Graveyard Clay), a feature film entirely performed in the Irish language. I’d love to know what my hero Flann O’Brien would make of the existence of such a production in the 21^st century.