I CATCH up with Dermot Cantillon at Forenaghts Stud, which Cantillon has been managing for 31 years now. His wife, Meta Osborne, is carrying out her professional duties at the other end of the yard.
“There’s the best vet around, working for free,” says Cantillon with a smile towards the first woman to become Senior Steward of the Irish Turf Club, a role she has just relinquished at the end of her two-year term.
“There’s some strong, healthy arguments here at the dinner table because she might be my wife but often she takes a completely different position than I would,” he remarks with a hearty laugh.
“We are very proud of her and she achieved a lot during her term of office. Only for the resistance she got from certain quarters within the regulatory body, I think she’d have achieved a lot more. There’s no doubt about that.”
It is typically forthright of Cantillon, and there are plenty more opinions. Significantly, there are potential solutions to perceived problems. His aim is not to criticise the decision-makers. It is all about constructively pursuing the advancement of the industry.
He has never been one to snipe from the shadows, always willing to walk the walk. He was a director of the Irish Horseracing Authority and Horse Racing Ireland for 10 years, chairman of Tote Ireland for seven. He is current chairman of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, a former chairman and current president of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association. He is a member of the board of the Irish Equine Centre, a director at Goffs and chairman of Naas Racecourse.
COMMON GOOD
“My philosophy is if you’re in something and you can get into a position where you can bring change about for the common good, that’s a thing to aim for. I’m not one for being a hurler on the ditch, give out and not try and do anything about it.”
That can-do attitude followed him throughout his life. Growing up in Tallow, Co Waterford, the son of a GP by the same name, he quickly became immersed in the two favourite pursuits of the locality - GAA and horse racing.
His father volunteered as the attending doctor at the point-to-point meeting and, since his death, Cantillon has sponsored the four-year-old maiden at Tallow in is memory.
He got his degree in Agricultural Science in UCD in 1984 and, after spending a summer in New York doing construction, went down to Lexington to a farm where his brother-in-law had worked previously. Cantillon liked it so much he enrolled to do a Masters in Animal Science specialising in equine nutrition at the University of Kentucky.
“I sold my car to pay for tuition for the first semester, then they put me on a scholarship and six months later I was managing the university’s farm.”
He did that for a year and a half before returning home to get married, having met Meta in Lexington. His new father-in-law, Michael Osborne, secured a meeting with Michael Smurfit. He created enough of an impression to be appointed racing manager and manager at Forenaghts early in 1987, aged 27, and has retained the roles since.
Having adopted a conservative approach during the recession, the farm is building up its broodmare band once more.
On the track, the successes were many. Vintage Crop, Zagreb, Kiichi, Fortune And Fame, Perris Valley, General Idea and Rare Holiday were just some of the stars to race in the Smurfit silks. Home-bred In A Tiff winning the Derby Italiano was particularly sweet, while one of Cantillon’s personal favourites was being presented with the Melbourne Cup on behalf of his boss when Media Puzzle emulated the trailblazing Vintage Crop in 2002.
Three years earlier, he had told his employers that he wanted to set up his own farm with Meta and that he would accept it if they were concerned about any conflict of interest. They weren’t, so he continued. Alexander Goldrun, Red Evie and Casamento gave Tinnakill House Stud in Coolrain prized Group 1 triumphs. The story behind Red Evie, and by extension, super filly Found, is a fascinating one.
“I worked for a guy in America called Robert Courtney. About seven or eight years later I went back to Kentucky and said ‘Robert, I’m looking for something with a problem’ because that’s what I was always looking for. I wouldn’t be able to afford the real thing. He says ‘I have the right mare for you. She’s cross and only has one ovary.’
“So I bought this mare called Malafemmena, I brought her home. She had a filly by Intikhab but haemorrhaged and died. That filly turned out to be Red Evie. I sold her as a foal to Tim Hyde Jnr. She won two Group 1s and ended up being the dam of Found. So if I’d never gone to Kentucky looking for a mare with a problem, there’d be no Found!”
A BIT DIFFERENT
What is his thinking when choosing a stallion?
“I always try to go against the tide. I bought a breeding right in Maxios in Germany and I sent a mare to him. I bought a breeding right last year to Dariyan, the Shamardal horse in France, and Bobby’s Kitten in England. So instead of having one of 40 at the sales, I’ll have one of two or three. I haven’t followed the pack. I tend to do things a little bit different.
“I’m driven by value. I have certain standards that I have to have in a mare but once the mare has established that, it’s all down to value then. I will never say ‘I won’t buy that mare.’ I might sit in the ring and bid on something that I never intended to bid on because I felt she was value and she met my minimum criteria.”
He warns that no-one should be fooled by the headline figures at sales into thinking the breeding industry is in a healthy state.
“I don’t think it’s healthy. For the ordinary breeder, they’re just keeping their heads above water. The stallion men are making a lot of money, especially the men with the popular stallions and more power to them.
“A friend of mine in America monitors the economics of the worldwide industry. He has these indices where he looks at the top 20 stallions in terms of their stud fee and looks at the corresponding top 20 yearling averages, and plots them in the graph.
Once the average yearling price dips below the average price of the nominations, you’re heading into a recession then. And that’s about to happen. We’re at tipping point again now. If production costs are more than what you can get in the ring, there is a possibility that we are heading for a recession again.”
Cantillon was in the news recently when calling for a change in how fixtures are allocated in Ireland. As chairman of a progressive board at Naas for the last nine years, he has combined forces with manager Tom Ryan and his team to create one of the best tracks in the land.
The reaction to the opening of The Circle building, as a focal point next to the parade ring has been universally positive. And more developments are planned, with the main stand to be revamped during the summer.
FRUSTRATED
Naas picked up the majority of the Curragh’s fixtures during the redevelopment of flat HQ but Cantillon is frustrated that a permanent Group 1 hasn’t come with it.
“We can never sit on our laurels. When we have this done we’ll be looking at the next thing to do and there’s a bit of an impatience there. Because there’s a status quo in Irish racing and I find that frustrating. I think it’s to the detriment of Irish racing.
“We have a situation - and no disrespect to the Curragh, it’s a wonderful racetrack - but we have 13 Group 1s, Eleven of them are in the Curragh and two in Leopardstown. We have classified Irish tracks as premier, grade 1, grade 2. It’s similar to the system they have in English soccer, except there’s no demotion and no promotion.
“There should be some kind of weighted system where if you’re seen to be doing the right things that you get rewarded for it. We have an appetite, a desire and an ambition within Naas to be a flagship racecourse for Ireland and we want to be left do that. Maybe some people think that isn’t what Naas should be; Naas should be what it always has been, but I don’t accept that.
“We need to have Group 1 racing because we deserve it and that can happen in two different ways. Either they transfer a Group 1 race to us or we establish a race in Naas and over time we develop it to a Group 1. I would like to think over time that the two things would happen.”
Cantillon believes that the industry needs to place the emphasis back on the key protagonists on race day.
“We get caught up in crowds and then we artificially look for increased numbers on the basis of a band, or best dressed lady but why don’t we get back to basics, get people to go for the love of the horse, for an interest in racing. We have to build on that and get it back into the Irish psyche because it’s not there at the moment.
“We will have a normal race meeting in the spring in Naas where the best horses in the world will probably be running, because Aidan O’Brien is a great supporter and Aidan has raised the bar for everybody. We have to get that message out there. Come to see the horses, come to see the great trainers and great jockeys and that’s what we have.
“I look upon a racecourse similar to a theatre. What we did at Naas first, we got the stage ready, we got the grounds ready. Thanks to Tom and the staff, it’s now looked upon as one of the best racing surfaces around.
“Then we developed the parade ring, we have the stables that are state of the art and now we’re going to look after the audience, the people that come racing. But we’re going to give them a different experience. It’s going to be based around the horse and horse people.
“The marketing at the moment is all about festivals. They’re great for numbers but are they great for the long-term benefit of the industry, getting people racing on a regular basis?”
TV CHANNEL
The transfer of television rights to Racing UK from At The Races is another hot topic and again, Cantillon has an innovative potential solution.
“My fear going forward is that there won’t be competition… I think we should be looking at creating our own channel, an Irish channel, which gives us control over the pictures. If there’s no competition, if we don’t have our own channel, we’re in trouble.
By at least looking at the feasibility of having our own channel, if we can’t have the money we want from SIS, we’ll have something to sell ourselves as an industry. If Manchester United can have its own TV channel, can’t a whole industry have one?
“Content is where it’s at so we should also be looking at joining forces with the point-to-point sector and the greyhounds too. So maybe it’s something we should all get together and discuss. Look at the feasibility of creating an Irish channel where you’d be in control of your own destiny. And you’d be in a stronger negotiating position.
“If we don’t we’ll be in a situation where we’re dependent on SIS to write the cheque and they won’t be writing the same cheque as they have been in the past when there was competition.”
Back on the track, he mourns the neutering of the betting ring but again, offers a possible answer.
“The integrity of the ring is being challenged at the moment. I remember when I started in Naas first as a director, 15 or 16 years ago, on a good day we’d turn over a million on the track.
Nowadays we turn over 250 (thousand). When you look at the fundamentals of Irish racing, the one thing that’s in terminal decline is the turnover in the ring. So we have to look at that and look at something that will incentivise people to go racing and bet on the course.
“My solution for that would if we introduce an off-course tax of 2½% on winnings, which is the equivalent of a 2% tax on turnover. And ensure that all bookies have to enforce it and pass it onto the punter, rather than the bigger firms taking it on themselves. That way, the small independent bookie won’t be affected adversely.
BETTING RING
“And then, have no tax on cash bets on course to protect the betting ring. That would be an incentive for people to go racing and protect the integrity of the ring.
An increase in betting tax was central to lobbying for increased funding from the Government.
“I think we made a fundamental mistake and that was just going looking for the percentage increase in the betting tax rather than going with the case for giving us the percentage. There’s a lot of fundamentals within the industry that are weak.
“Our net prize money - and by that I mean, deduct the 25% that the owners put in. In France, they put in 4%. So we artificially pretend we’ve higher prize money than we actually do. So we have to make prize money more attractive.
“Also, the people within the industry get forgotten about an awful lot of the time. They’re entitled to a living wage, minimum. Anyone working in the industry should have aspirations to have their own house, a car and a reasonable lifestyle. We should be able to provide a wage structure to support that.
“I think education gets lip service and RACE should be supported more to provide various levels of education within the industry so they can improve their lot.
“Also, in terms of the health of our horses, the Irish Equine Centre is an essential part of ensuring that that is maintained. I’m on the board there and they need a significant injection of capital because the buildings were built 25, 30 years ago and need to be replaced.
“So that’s the basis for looking for the increase.”
The 58-year-old has already referred to our propensity for labelling ourselves as world leaders without actually leading and returns to the theme.
“Within the industry we talk of ourselves as world leaders, but do we think of ourselves as world leaders? If we’re thinking like world leaders, we should be thinking about things that world leaders do. When I look at something like Davos, Davos was a small conference they used to have in a ski resort in the middle of a Swiss mountain, and now, all the leaders from all over the world come there (for the World Economic Forum).
“Why couldn’t we have an annual conference for breeding and racing in Ireland? Ireland is a very popular destination, we have the facilities in Dublin. Couldn’t we give leadership in that respect? Have a Davos-type conference for the whole industry worldwide? There’s nobody else doing it. We’re supposed to be world leaders.”
Tomorrow, Naas hosts its Paddy Power Cheltenham Trials Day, a fixture that invariably offers up a nugget or two for the Cotswolds Olympics.
“The tracks that are recognised as being the best trial tracks in Ireland for Cheltenham, probably because they’re left-handed, would be Navan, Leopardstown and Naas. We are thankful to Paddy Power, who are great supporters, and look forward to some great racing.
“We have a huge National Hunt tradition. We have achieved our goal of having a Grade 1 National Hunt race and our Lawlor’s Hotel Novice Hurdle is now well established. We want to build on the legacy we have been given, to be a top-tier track on both the flat and National Hunt. That’s the aim.”