SNOWFALL arrives at the Curragh this weekend, looking to follow in illustrious hooves.

If the daughter of Deep Impact does justify prohibitive odds to land the Juddmonte Irish Oaks for trainer Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore partners, she will become the first filly to complete the Epsom-Curragh double since Enable in 2017.

Of course we all know what Enable went on to do under the masterful stewardship of John Gosden, scoring in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on two consecutive occasions, becoming the first Arc winner to win at the Breeders’ Cup when prevailing in the Turf the following season and then at six, registering a record third King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, finishing with a tally of 11 Group/Grade 1 triumphs.

When Enable and Frankie Dettori triumphed by five and a half lengths four years ago, she was providing her owner Prince Khalid Abdullah with his third success in the Irish fillies’ classic, bridging a 23-year gap from when the Barry Hills-trained Bolas completed a two-in-a-row for the Saudi Arabian owner-breeder, Wemyss Bight having gotten him on the board in 1993 for trainer André Fabre.

Fittingly, Pat Eddery, born and raised just down the road from the Curragh, was on board both times, just as he was so often in the immediately recognisable green jacket with pink sash and cap, and white sleeves, with the likes of Dancing Brave, Commander In Chief, Zafonic, Quest For Fame and Toulon, among countless others.

Strong link

Prince Khalid always had a strong link with Ireland and when a vacancy in the sponsorship of the Irish Oaks came up last year, he was quick to fill it. Sadly, he passed away last January and won’t get to see this year’s renewal.

Sensing the time was right, his 22-year racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe stood down having overseen a golden era headlined by Frankel, Arrogate, Kingman and, of course, Enable.

Into the considerable breach vacated by Grimthorpe steps Barry Mahon, almost to the manor born, albeit not a Lord, unlike his predecessor.

Mahon is the son of Rory, a seemingly eternal presence at Juddmonte’s Ferrans Stud. The 38-year-old was very familiar with the philosophies and goals even before he became stud director in Ireland, a position he held when asked to assume greater responsibility.

It is a challenge, particularly given the transitional nature of the operation follow Prince Khalid’s death, and in the wake of the aforementioned equine bounty, but one Mahon is enthusiastic about.

“The fact that I am with Juddmonte for the last five years, I know the people, I know the processes,” explains Mahon.

Colin Keane, Barry Mahon, Lord Grimthorpe and Rory Mahon after Siskin had won the Gain Railway Stakes at the Curragh \ carolinenorris.ie

“While the job title has changed, people are still the same. It’s busy but I’m settling in good. The trainers have all been good to be fair. They are very forthcoming with information and feedback so that makes your job a lot easier.

“The family, in fairness, are dedicated to continuing Prince Khalid’s legacy, which is a fair legacy he has left behind with multiple champions

“My title now is general manager of Ireland (operations) and head of European racing. The general manager part is the two stud farms that are in Ireland, which is Ferrans Stud in Co Meath and New Abbey Stud in Kilcullen… which are primarily weanlings on one farm and yearlings/two-year-olds on the other farm. So it’s all from weanlings stage up to the racetrack and beyond. And then the broodmares and the foals are still managed in the UK by Simon Mockridge, who is the general manager of the UK. Garrett O’Rourke is general manager in the US.”

Nothing much has changed in the practical operation of Juddmonte Farms since Prince Khalid’s death, Mahon reports.

“The family, in fairness, are dedicated to continuing Prince Khalid’s legacy, which is a fair legacy he has left behind with multiple champions and Group 1 winners, the enviable broodmare band he has built up and the stallion roster he has. They very much are committed to continuing that. They actively are involved in the decision-making process along the line.”

Grimthorpe described the week before he spoke to this writer for the Big Interview – this same week, four years ago, ahead of Enable’s double bid – as “Logjam Week”, having been in three countries in three days taking in sales and racing.

Mahon is learning about the logjams of his new life but is energised by them. He has overseen the sale of some stock and was pleasantly surprised by the international presence at last week’s Tattersalls July Sale.

Feel good factor

“There was money from Australia, money from America and plenty of money from the Middle East. It was positive and I suppose England are a little bit further in the opening up process than we are. It definitely had a more of a feelgood factor and more of a normal factor over there.

“Primarily we breed to race, that is our number one focus. And when we sell, maybe they have been a bit disappointing on the track or they have had a few injuries.

“They are three-year-olds that have maybe won a race and just weren’t capable of stakes form. They had reached their ceiling for us. As we have seen in the past, change of environment, change of owner, change of routine and you get improvement.

“We have sold plenty of horses that went on to do great things for the next man. That is important too.

“For us we just feel that they have reached their max. Maybe with the filly we have a lot of the family, we have a couple of daughters that are rated higher, etc., etc. It is just a natural process to keeping the numbers under control.”

Success comes in a number of different guises for Juddmonte.

“Our job here is to produce fillies good enough to retire into the green book. And colts good enough to stand at Banstead Manor alongside Frankel and Oasis Dream and Kingman and Expert Eye. That is what we mean by success.”

Stallions

Speaking of stallions, Frankel has moved to another level this year. In June, his progeny made off with the Epsom (Adayar) and Curragh (Hurricane Lane) Derbys.

Snow Lantern shot towards the top of the miler category when scoring in the Falmouth Stakes last week. With five crops aged three or older, Frankel appears certain to be a staple at the sharp end of the stallion table for years to come, in the wake of the recent death of his own sire, Galileo.

“It has been a massive year. He has showed us the promise all along and he just had to deliver in the quantity that he has done this year. He is doing it between England, Ireland and Australia, he is doing it worldwide.

“He has done it in Japan and he is stepping up to be a top-flight stallion. It was Frankel the champion racehorse up to this year. Now you are talking about Frankel the leading stallion.

“There is no guarantee with any stallion but when you start off with elite performance on the racetrack, top-flight pedigree, beautiful conformation, good sire and dam line. you increase your chance of having a successful stallion quite significantly.

“Over the years we have been hard on the requirements for a stallion to retire. That has probably led us to where we are now with the roster we have, we have such a good line-up.”

Enable, herself a granddaughter of Galileo, is now in foal to another Juddmonte sire, Kingman. It is the encapsulation of the model, of the dream harboured by Prince Khalid.

“That is what it has always been about for Prince Khalid. It is about producing the filly that is good enough to retire and visit his own stallion and have a stallion that is good enough to cover the top-class filly. The stars align when you have a filly like Enable retiring to stud to go to Kingman. That is what we are all here to do. It is the hardest thing in the world to do, to get. But when you do get it, it is special. It was special for Prince Khalid and is special his family.”

Legacy

Mahon describes Galileo as “one of the greatest stallions of all time”. His loss is considerable, he adds, but he hopes Frankel can carry on that particular legacy.

“The indicators are good. His classic winners this year have been a great help. Snow Lantern in Newmarket. And he has had a couple of impressive two-year-old winners. And he had a six-furlong Group 3 winner for Her Majesty The Queen the other day. He is just starting to kick in at every division.

“That is the real testament to a top-class stallion that they get them, colts, fillies, six furlongs, a mile, and a mile and a half, a mile and six. That is what Galileo himself did and that is the real testament of a stallion.”

The roster of trainers he has to deal with is varied. Ger Lyons is an example of Prince Khalid’s willingness to add to that roster as a result of proven success through the ranks. The Irish 2,000 Guineas victory of Siskin was a pretty instant vindication for all involved.

But loyalty was always a beacon of the prince’s work and the imprint of Dermot Weld on the Juddmonte broodmare band in particular ensures there will always be support for Rosewall House.

In England, John Gosden – who Mahon once worked for – Sir Michael Stoute, Ralph Beckett, Roger Charlton, Hugo Palmer and Charlie Hills train for Juddmonte. In France, it’s André Fabre, Francis Graffard and Henri Devin. They have plenty of equine quality but it was always going to feel a little bit ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Ball’, after the past decade.

“You are talking about the elite, the top of the top there and it is very, very hard to produce them every year. Probably to produce one in a lifetime is a phenomenal achievement. So to have produced Enable, Frankel, Kingman, to have been lucky enough to have bought Arrogate.

Enable and Frankie Dettori easily win the Irish Oaks in 2017 \ Healy Racing

“To have four horses like them in the last 10 years is unbelievable. It’s unheard of. So definitely we haven’t got anything of that calibre at the minute. We are looking for the two-year-olds now and hopefully something will pop up.

“Tilsit was good in Ascot and he was good in France the time before that too. It looked for every bit of it that he was going to break his Group 1 duck and he just got chinned on the line.

“Again the family are looking at options and they have Goodwood (Sussex Stakes) and they have the Jacques le Marois, they are options, they will look at it and they will talk to Charlie. We will all get together and decide what’s best for the horse to make it a Group 1 winner.

“Logician is good, John is happy with him. I saw him last week. He looks a million dollars. Again he is just taking his time with him now and picking his course.

“He thinks he has him fit he has been very hard to get fit. He is a big, gross horse. And he is a bit older now he is just hard to get fit. After his two runs he thinks he has him cherry ripe.

“Ger has a lovely filly Sacred Bridge, she is two from two. She was impressive the first day and she done it easily the second day. She was hands and heels both days.

“Ger, again he has sort of a course mapped out for her, something like the Marwell Stakes, a listed race in Naas (next week) and then a possibility of looking at something like the Lowther for her.

“In France we have a nice filly called Exigency. She won first time out for Francis. She looks an exciting filly so hopefully she will progress as the year goes on.

“And in the English trainers they are just starting to come to the fore now. Expert Eye’s sister Invigilate (Stoute) ran last week in Newmarket, ran a nice race and will improve a lot from that and is a filly to look forward to for the second half of the season.”

The industry has been dealt some serious blows that it was helpless to avoid, but there are some areas it can help itself.

“It has been a very tough 18 months for racing and breeding. Covid which is the obvious one. And the travel restrictions. That has made life hard for people.

“A lot of these farms are rural farms in isolated places. People have had challenges with mental health, etc., being isolated on a farm.

“That has been tough on people. It has been tough on people in every walk of life to be fair.

Hard knock

“For our industry we have suffered a big blow with the loss of Mr Thompson from Cheveley Park, Sheikh Hamdan from Shadwell and Prince Khalid from Juddmonte. That is three of the top five owner-breeders in Europe gone in the space of a few months. That is a hard knock.

“But this is a very resilient business. The July Sale last week even hammered home again there is great appetite for horses. People are still producing. I do notice lately there is an appetite that everyone wants to increase the quality of what they are producing. I think everyone is upping their game.

“The prize money situation is a concern, and it’s probably one of the biggest concerns facing Irish and English racing at the minute. The level of the prize money in Australia and America and the Middle East has far exceeded what we can muster up here and it is causing more and more horses to be sold abroad before they reach their potential here. It is something that drastically needs to be addressed.”

Juddmonte has a long history of sponsorship in Ireland, keen to support racing in a country in which it has such a strong foundation. The Juddmonte Irish Oaks just made sense.

“The Irish Oaks it is an important race for us over the years trying to win it with fillies. It is a top-flight classic. For us to be involved with such a prestigious classic is very important.

“We have sponsored racing in Ireland for a number of years now. We were very keen to get our name behind a classic and when the Oaks became available, we jumped at it straight away.

“There was no hesitation. Hopefully we will have a good renewal again this year.

“When Enable won, that was magic. Ireland has been good to us. We have a big foothold in Ireland with the two farms. We have over 1,000 acres and quite a large staff base. Ireland is embedded into Juddmonte’s history going back to the early 1980s.

Champions

“All of the European-bred champions over the years have been through Ferrans and most of them through New Abbey. They have been reared for a large portion of their life here.

“It is special for us and the staff and for everybody involved, to see them progressing because we have all had an involvement with them at some stage in their life. And so to sponsor the Irish Oaks is great.”

He has had to hit the ground running but Barry Mahon is enjoying his new job. And as we conclude, he is keen to pay tribute to the man he succeeded.

“What a remarkable job Teddy Grimthorpe did for Juddmonte in the last 20-odd years. The successful careers that he guided during his tenure is remarkable. He had first-hand knowledge or contact with the best of the best in that time.

“He has helped guide them through their successful careers. If I can do half as good a job or have half as much success, I would say I will be doing okay.”