IN the right place at the right time. The key part of the recipe to so many successful stories in racing, sport and just plain life itself.

Michael Shefflin was in the right place at the right time when he first saw French Aseel. The place was the Arqana Summer Sale at Deauville and the time was July.

“I liked him straight away,” he recalls. “I looked at his races and he had won impressively. I got him vetted and it all worked out. He just ticked all the boxes.

“From a bloodstock agent’s point of view, you may not need to go to a sale but sometimes if you’re there, you never know what happens. I went to that sale to sell a breeze-up horse and only because I was there doing that job, I wouldn’t be in France to buy this horse.

“You kind of need to go to all these sales because you never know what will fall in front of you. He did probably fall in front of me.”

That is most definitely a modest take. Shefflin, alongside Ellmarie Holden and her father Paul, plays a key part in a trio who have combined for multiple success stories on the track, around the flags and subsequently in the sales rings in the last five years.

Lots of people can get lucky with one horse but when it happens multiple times, it’s very unlikely to be coincidence. First there was Ex Patriot and Abolitionist and more recently there was Sir Gerhard, Jonbon and now French Aseel, who after a sensational performance on his Irish debut in a three-year-old hurdle at Leopardstown, was sold to Joe and Marie Donnelly for a presumably significant profit on the initial outlay of €62,000.

French Aseel and Denis O'Regan clear from their rivals in what should have been a competitive juvenile maiden hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas \ Healy Racing

Shefflin has known Paul and Catherine Holden a long time. They’re all from the same Kilkenny village of Mullinavat. Shefflin was born and reared in a pub business and Paul and Catherine were good customers.

During his school days, Shefflin used to go up to work at local trainer Sean Walsh’s, where he got a great insight from top horseman Richie Hendrick. He moved on from there to do a equine course Kildalton College before completing the Irish National Stud Course. The latter opened up an avenue to go to Kentucky where he worked for David Mullins, a cousin of Willie’s.

He came back to Mullinavat to set up Annshoon Stud, where he currently stands three stallions, and from then established a business connection with the Holdens to handle the buying and selling of their predominantly National Hunt stock.

The Holdens had horses in training with multiple trainers for many years. They bought a cross-country facility just outside Ballyhale six years ago now and while mulling over the site’s potential, Ellmarie put her hand up and asked if she could train the horses.

Precocity

All the Holden horses came home and in her first two years, Ellmarie showed remarkable precocity as a trainer, aged just 26 when she first set out. Static Jack was just her fourth runner when he won a Gowran Park bumper and that success was shortly followed by Sir Jack Yeats winning at Bellewstown.

The following January, she sent out juvenile hurdler Ex Patriot to win his maiden hurdle impressively at Fairyhouse. He would go on to finish an excellent fourth to Defi Du Seuil in the Triumph Hurdle that season, despite breaking loose on his way down to the start.

In between those two runs, Holden trained Abolitionist to win the lucrative Leinster National at Naas, setting him up for an excellent third in the Irish Grand National, which, combining with the burgeoning talent of Rachael Blackmore, gathered headlines outside of racing’s media bubble.

In total, during her first two seasons and from just a handful of runners, Holden sent out 30 winners, 15 each term, all for her parents, the majority acquired by Shefflin. Her excellent record garnered lots of enquiries from outside owners to take in horses but she and her parents prioritised the small but very skilled team at home, which they believed was key to the success so far.

While the number of horses has always remained steady between 14-16, the strategy has taken a turn in recent seasons.

Ellmarie explains: “We have changed our approach in the last few years. When we started we had loads of nice horses there. They had a bit of form already and we had plenty of success, amazing success really.

“But it just so happened, unknown to ourselves, that we had a couple of winners, people rang and were enquiring if the horses were for sale – the likes of Abolitionist – and we moved them on.

“I suppose it wasn’t a thing we sat down and really aimed for. It just happened to work out that way, that this was the route that we ended up going down. Usually anything that we run now is for sale. It’s going well so far.”

It certainly is. And if people weren’t sure how big a player the Holdens and Shefflin were going to be in what is a dog-eat-dog sector, a strong indication was given when they eclipsed some of the most dauntless handlers in the game by going to €140,000 to secure the Douvan full-brother, who would come to be named Jonbon, at the Land Rover Sale last summer.

“I actually thought he was quite cheap on the day,” Shefflin says. “Yes it was definitely a big risk because, as any of these big point-to-point lads like Donnchadh Doyle or Colin Bowe know, you have to bring them home, you have to break them and then you have to train them and hope that they stay sound and stick the test of time. While all the time you’re pushing them to perform and win a maiden as a four-year-old.

“They also have to be good enough. There’s always a big risk when you spend €140,000 but we always knew from the day we bought him, if it works, it will work because he has the pedigree, he ticks all the boxes and that if we could win with him and win impressively, that we were going to get a payday.”

Jonbon, ridden by Derek O'Connor, produced a taking performance to win on debut at Dromahane \ Healy Racing

With that initial outlay, the mere thoughts of breaking the horse in would incite insomnia among many of the finest horsemen and women in the country, not to mention the stumbling block presented by a global pandemic a bit further down the line, but Ellmarie bats away that suggestion, as if the whole ordeal was more like the name of Jonbon’s sire.

“He was grand,” she asserts. “To be honest there was no real worry with him, none at all. All the horses are treated the same and in his case, if they were as easy to manage as him, it would be easy enough.

“He was lovely to train. He had his own little quirks but when you jumped on him, he was lovely, you could do anything with him. When everything came to a halt, it didn’t help because he was ready to run. It was a pity but everyone was in the same boat so we just got a little summer grass with him and drove on again.

“When it came to running him at Dromahane, I’d say we were confident and nervous at the same time.”

No worries

There was never really a moment’s worry for Jonbon at Dromahane. Derek O’Connor, another man connected to the Holdens over the years, had rode the horse plenty in the lead up and rode him confidently, settled in behind the leaders. The pair made their challenge three out, held a six-length advantage at the last before easily extending that to 15 lengths at the line.

It was the key puzzle piece. Now they just had to get him to a sale, and the only real option was the hastily scheduled Goffs auction at Yorton Farm, on the Welsh-English border.

“We were getting lots of calls at home, and refusing offers,” Shefflin says. “We had to go to public auction with him – there were too many people calling.

“To be honest we didn’t have a clear figure in our heads. We knew we could get close to 500 but we didn’t expect that price (£570,000). Especially with the way things are. It’s like any sale of any horse – as well as a buyer, you need an underbidder and thankfully enough we had a very good underbidder (holiday park ower Tony Barney) who was new to the game and if he wasn’t there, maybe the price would have been different.”

Sold to J.P. McManus at £570,000, Jonbon became the most expensive point-to-pointer sold at public auction. That price was equalled by the Donnchadh Doyle-handled Classic Getaway just weeks later and the pair are joint second most expensive jumps horses, after Darren Yates paid £620,000 for Interconnected in 2019.

“It was an amazing feeling and it was a great boost for my parents,” says Holden. “It was a great boost for all of us in the yard and for Michael Shefflin, it was him and my dad who picked him out on the day. It was just a great feeling.

“I have a brilliant team here. They’re all pretty amazing and they know their stuff. I wouldn’t be in the position I am today only for my parents. And Michael has done a brilliant job. We’ve a lovely team, everyone works very well together.”

Yearning

Given Holden tasted significant success on the track very early, you’d wonder if there was yearning for that sort of big day, considering now, her team is essentially providing others with the horses to make their own big days.

“That would always be in your head,” she admits. “But we’re not going too bad now I think. It’s so far so good.

“It’s different to what I was doing before – we’re now training young horses and having to break them in and get them ready. You’re doing a lot more schooling. When they get away on grass after a couple of days, they usually come around and get the hang of it. Some of them do it quite quickly.

“You’d always follow the horses (when they move on). You love seeing them do well. It gives you a great boost to see them go on and do their bit for the next owner.”

Sir Gerhard has done exactly that. The son of Jeremy was trained by Holden to win his four-year-old maiden impressively at the first time of asking at Boulta in November 2019 before selling for £400,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale three weeks later, another hefty return on an initial outlay of ¤72,000 at the 2018 Land Rover Sale.

Bought by Gordon Elliott for Cheveley Park Stud, the now six-year-old is a general 5/2 shot for the Champion Bumper after two impressive performances on the track.

Flat

It’s not all point-to-pointers at Coolmeen Stables as Holden sent over Darwell Lion to win a two-year-old maiden at Lingfield at the end of last month. The son of The Last Lion managed to win despite running green for the entirety of the seven-furlong maiden, having to be nursed home by Hollie Doyle, very much suggesting he could be an above average type with a bit more experience.

Shefflin explains: “As a team, myself Paul and Ellmarie, we buy horses at the store sales to sell as pointers but we also buy horses at flat sales that maybe might go on and go over jumps - like French Aseel.

“We want to try and sell to everyone and have a broad spectrum of clients. We like to think that we don’t have to divide ourselves to one set of purchasers. We bought Darwell Lion and ran him at Lingfield to go in and to sell.

“It’s not solely selling to Gordon Elliott or Tom Malone if you know what I’m saying? Plus you’re doing something in the summertime when the National Hunt season is over.”

Ellmarie with French Aseel in the winners' enclosure Healy Racing.

Coolmeen Stables will remain a private yard for the Holdens and it’s a case of keep doing what they have been doing. The news of a stoppage in point-to-point is a blow but Holden has been there before, and hopes it will be a minor halt this time around.

“It’s a big blow to the industry – please god HRI can get us back up in running as soon as possible. We’ve been through it before and we’ll all get through it again. I’m lucky that I have the track licence so we have the option of using that – maiden hurdles or bumpers. We’ll just have to see how things develop.

“I’ve two lovely Walk In The Parks, two Getaways, two Lauros. We’ve a lovely bunch of horses here coming on.”

Shefflin adds: “That aspect (point-to-pointer sales) of the industry probably has taken a hit. I know the foal sales were very strong, but there doesn’t seem to be an even balance of buyers for the pointers. There’s loads of lads to give big money but then it kind of falls off a bit.

“We’ve a lot of nice young horses, plenty of early ones, and hopefully they will go well.”

He is speaking from France, where he’s trying to source the next French Aseel. Hopefully in the right place, at the right time again.