THERE is a common thread between some of the most successful companies in the world.

Coca Cola did not start out as the globally-famous soft drink it is today. It was originally a remedy for common ailments, designed by pharmacist Dr John Stith Pemberton as a syrup formula in 1885.

The creator of Lego only branched out into creating the plastic product when birchwood became difficult to source for his wooden toy-making business in the aftermath of the first World War. In fact, it had actually started out as a carpentry and woodwork shop for building doors and furniture.

For good measure, Play-Doh - respsonsible for 100 million units in sales annually - was originally marketed as a wallpaper cleaner prior to a marked decline in cleaner sales in the 1950s.

Moral of the story: there can be some very happy accidents and pivots that lead to great things in business.

Andy Slattery has described it as “almost by accident” that he began training flat horses. Working alongside his brothers, Willie and Brian, in the breeze-up industry under their Meadowview Stables umbrella, Slattery can recall a season where they were stuck with a handful of two-year-olds, who failed to sell and ended up remaining under his tutelage for the track.

“They all won and we sold them off well, so that started it all,” the Co Tipperary handler previously said of his flat introduction. The operation has flourished since.

You only have to go back as far as 2010 to find a year where Slattery sent out two winners from 29 runners on the flat in Ireland.

Fast forward last year, and the family-run operation notched up a career-best 28 winners from 389 runners - as well as a domestic prize money haul of close to €450,000. It is an operation growing in scale, and quality.

The latter point is evidenced by deeply exciting filly Easy heading to Tattersalls Irish Guineas weekend at the Curragh with a big chance in next Saturday’s Group 2 Weatherbys Ireland Greenlands Stakes.

Most of the 79 boxes at the Killenaule yard are filled with young flat horses, and that is a change in emphasis from when the same outfit produced Faugheen to win on his point-to-point debut in 2012, as well as nurturing other quality jumpers in their early days like Cooldine, Quel Esprit and Monksland.

That said, he still sent out Will The Wise, an impressive Punchestown Festival bumper winner for Gavin Cromwell earlier this month, to win between the flags first time out in November.

“The point-to-point side of the business has gone smaller and is no longer the main driver for us,” says Slattery.

Market trends

“It’s all down to the market. It’s easier to sell the flat horses, though we do have a few point-to-pointers who we didn’t run yet this year and will be there for the autumn. I probably will get more jumpers when it settles down again in terms of prices.

“That’s kind of the reason we moved away from the National Hunt game. We could go to an open sale and buy 10 yearlings for the price of four stores. We couldn’t justify giving €60,000 or €70,000 for a store that we’re ultimately selling on.”

Breezers remain a part of the fabric in the Slattery family enterprise. At Arqana last week, they turned a €42,000 yearling colt by Honor A. P. into €160,000 when selling to Jamie Osborne. A Tamayuz colt from the operation also fetched €60,000 at the same sale, and they are represented again at the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze Up Sale in the coming days.

How does Slattery interpret the breeze-up landscape in 2024?

“France was good to us, but it’s more challenging in England,” he says.

“I think it’ll be tough there for a while. I felt that the 40-grand horse was making 10 grand. Trainers were struggling for owners to buy those horses.

“We average out at about €20,000 or €25,000 in terms of the cost of the yearlings we buy. That’s kind of the way we go at it. We try to buy a nice type of horse, as opposed to focusing on particular stallions. Even if they don’t make the grade you’re aiming for on the flat, there’s still often a market abroad where you can get them sold to, which you don’t tend to have over jumps.

“I tend to let the two brothers work away with the sales for the breezers. They do plenty of the groundwork and when I see a fast one, I want to keep it!”

Slattery, who sent out his first winner in March 1997 when the Paul Moloney-ridden Shaws Cross struck at Tramore, says his life as a trainer is busier now than ever before.

Naturally enough, there is a confidence and assurance that comes with the experience of big-race successes through the likes of Creggs Pipes, An Saighdiur, Planchart, Solene Lilyette, Sors and Sunchart.

“I enjoy what I do,” he says.

“In earlier years, the input of owners in terms of decision-making, telling you what to do and so on, would have been a bigger factor. Nowadays, I can make a decision and my owners get on with me well - we make a decision and stick to it without being put off. To be honest, I try to do more of my own thing these days.

Experience counts

“Most of the owners are with me long enough to understand my thinking and we absolutely all want the same result. I don’t get as much flak as I used to when I was starting off. I’m more relaxed about it now and don’t get too excited when I win, don’t get too down when I lose. It’s busier than ever. We have stables for 79 and are hoping to build a new yard in the not-too-distant future. We’re in the process of building another 20 or 25 stables.”

What is it like working so closely with family? Slattery’s son Andrew, a former champion apprentice, is also an integral part of the team.

“We all have our rows but we get on great. Being honest, I don’t know how people do it in the game without family. There’s one of us there the whole time. For example, the other morning I worked 10 horses before I went to Navan, I was on the road for eight o’clock and there were still 60 horses to ride out - it gets done with the help of those around you.”

He adds: “There isn’t any real off-switch in the game. When we used to do more point-to-pointers, we’d have 10 horses in for the summer. Now it’s full all year round. There’s no time off. I don’t really do anything outside to switch off, other than to sleep. I sleep well this weather! Since we were young, this is what you live and breathe, though. I enjoy it.”

The majority of Slattery’s string are deemed to be commercial horses bought with the intention of trading.

Value seekers

In a column penned in The Irish Fieldtowards the end of last season, an eye for value was highlighted in the Tipperary stable. At the tume, Slattery had recorded the second-most winners of any Irish stable in 2023 when it comes to two-year-old maiden winners sourced for €30,000 or less at public auction.

That said, there is a growing base of owners in the Slattery yard who are keeping their horses with the capable outfit, and healthy levels of prize money in the jurisdiction is important for the retention of owners in any stable.

Fellow trainer Johnny Murtagh bemoaned the fact a listed race won by Slattery with a 104-rated performer this season offered a total prize pot of €40,000. Murtagh insisted in the TDN that “it should be a 100-grand race”.

“Johnny made the point that for winning the Devoy Stakes at the start of the season, Sunchart only picked up €24,000,” says Slattery.

“I think it’s a poor outlook for a listed race. When you have good horses that you want to keep here, you’d like for the prize money to be rewarding when they win a good race.

“We need to trade to keep going. That said, we’ve now come across a few bigger owners who want to keep their horses with us. It’s obviously nice to have them stay, and that goes for flat and National Hunt horses.”

Despite being a little above the aforementioned €30,000 marker, high-class sprinting prospect Easy turned out to be a cracking yearling purchase at €48,000 from Shadwell. It’s probably fair to say she sold for a fair deal more than that when joining Team Valor privately after an impressive debut success in a six-furlong maiden at Cork in July 2022.

However, the speedy daughter of Kodiac was transferred to Paddy Twomey and failed to race for 567 days after a mid-field finish in the Listed Ingabelle Stakes on her second and final start at two. She has not been the easiest to keep sound, and ended up returning to Slattery to race in the colours of Team Valor and Gary Barber.

Huge ability

Extremely pleasingly for connections, the four-year-old made up for lost time in a massive way when defying a rating of 88 to win the Listed Cork Stakes with ease in March under the Andrew Jr.

“She’s very special,” beams Slattery. “It’s just all about whether we can keep the wheels on her. She’s had surgery in her knees and has arthritis, so it’s about trying to keep everything right.

“They bought her after she won her maiden as a two-year-old. We had previously been involved with the owners after we had some success with a mare called Solene Lilyette [shrewdly bought for €12,000 in an online sale and sold for 350,000gns later that year].

“I was told that if I ever had a good one again, to make contact [with Team Valor] in the future. I called about Easy with the intention that I’d still be training her, but I was told she’d be going to Paddy Twomey’s. I can remember saying to put it on the record that it would be a mistake to train her or run her again that year.

“She was trained for the day [won her maiden], a 16.2 hands filly who needed time, but I thought she was very talented. I think if she was put away that day we wouldn’t be having this conversation about her today. She’s just different.

I’d have horses at home who run in five-furlong races with a rating in the 80s. They’d go for a while usually, but she’d have them off the bridle after 50 yards - she runs all over them.”

Top-level target

Blacktype hunting is the priority for Easy in 2024. There is a major Group 1 target eyed up later in the campaign too.

“I had planned on running her in the Athasi Stakes [earlier this month] and thought she’d have won it with her head in her chest, but she just came into season so we said we’d wait,” says Slattery.

“I was sick looking at the result because I really feel she’d have won. We’re aiming for the Greenlands now. If we have a bit of rain, it’d be no harm. I do think she’d go on fast ground but I’d rather not do that with her previous complaints. I have my eye on the Flying Five Stakes at the Irish Champions Festival.”

He continues: “It’s brilliant to have one like her. There is pressure, but not from the owners. It’s pressure you put on yourself. We want to keep her right and are working on her all the time. She’s a lovely, straightforward type.

“I think she’ll be sharper from what she showed at Cork. I remember running An Saighdiur to finish third in the Greenlands [in 2014] behind Slade Power and Maarek. She’d be different gravy altogether. I have no horse that can keep with her in her work. I let her do her own thing.”

It looked a highly unlikely path that Easy would end up back with Andy Slattery and on the cusp of group-race success after her sale away from the yard back in 2022, but the talented team behind her is relishing the chance to make the most of the development.

Another unexpected pivot that might just lead to great things.