FRESH from having the most lucrative sales week of his life, notably the £400,000 Doncaster Spring Sale top lot Minella Premier, John Nallen is not indulging in an endless round of parties, flying to Barbados or sunning himself on a yacht.

No, he is behind the reception desk at his family’s Hotel Minella in Clonmel on a midweek morning. It is not where many of us might be in similar circumstances but, for those who know him, it is not a surprise to see him there.

The show must go on and he has to oversee it. As always, there are jobs to be done. You don’t build up a concern the size of the ‘Minella’ by slacking. This beautiful place his parents bought in 1961, now run by John and his sister Liz Bowen, is a testament to that. He could be mistaken for someone doing odd jobs around the place; indeed he has been.

A guest once asked him if the man who had owned the Gold Cup and Grand National winners Minella Indo and Minella Times visits the hotel often. John mischeviously replied that he does occasionally, only for the guest to soon embarrassingly realise that he was talking to the ‘man’ in question!

John beckons me into a plush room behind reception that was likely to have been a palatial drawing room in a past life. Then, without much prompting, John starts talking enthusiastically about horses, the point-to-point scene, the problems, the solutions, and a lot more. He talks at speed and his lyrical South Tipp accent turn of phrase can be hard to follow at times, but thankfully the dictaphone captures his every word.

The conversation starts with Minella Premier, and it’s clear how highly he rates the latest star to emerge from his academy.

“Jumping the last at Ballindenisk was the gold medal and going to Doncaster was the medal presentation, that is the size of it,” he summarises. “Now, my heart was jumping out of my chest when he won but we knew where we were going with that fella from an early stage. People would be stunned at what price I would have brought that horse home at and I made no secret about it, he was going there to be bought not to be sold. I have done enough of the other thing [selling] and I said, ‘I have the one now’.”

It would have been easy to sell the horse privately - there were plenty of offers - but John decided to give everyone a fair shot. “We went over there [to the Goffs Spring Sale] because there was savage interest in him and it was a bit of politics, you know? I didn’t want to disappoint people, like I was getting nearly what he made at home. And there were a few people on him at Doncaster, Laura Morgan and the footballer (Alan Rogers), Tom Malone and Jerry McGrath, who knew all about the horse and was such a fan of the horse. So I am delighted that Jerry got him for Nicky [Henderson] and his new owner [Oliver Harris].”

The bidders didn’t just rely on what they saw at Ballindenisk or on John’s word that Minella Premier was the real deal.

“I tell you, though, there is some difference in the vetting of a horse like him and one you buy at a store sale,” he explains. “It is like they are different religions. He went through so many tests and came out clean, you couldn’t ask for him to do any more. The other horses I sold there are nice too and were value, I think. I expect them to do well for their new owners as well.” For the record, they were point-to-point winners Minella Sixo (£115,000), Minella Juke (£140,000) and point/bumper placed Minella Post (£90,000).

Trying times

It was a fine reward at the end of a trying year for point-to-pointing, mainly caused by the persistently horrible wet weather, which affected most handlers. But there are deeper issues at play too, John feels.

“Conditions were rough the whole year and we didn’t train them when the conditions were real rough and there was a lot of uncertainty with cancellations. They put on more meetings for a finish but there are grey areas.

“My view is that the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board [IHRB] are the paid police force of point-to-points. I have to toe the line by the law here in the hotel but they don’t tell me what to put on the menu. It is needed but they are partners too; we are trying to get a living out of it, they are too but they are control freaks. There is control and there is total control.

“The people putting on the points are afraid of their life of the Turf Club, the jockeys are afraid of their life of them, the handlers too. It is not for the glory of the IHRB that the point-to-points are on; to me that is the way it seems. They did put on [extra] dates but there needs to be some sort of a liaison or something, someone in the middle. People just get a word on the ground that this meeting is off in three weeks, or something like that. There needs to be better communication, say, to tell people if there is a problem with a meeting. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are doing things, trying to fix issues but nobody knows about it. We definitely have to establish that the IHRB are a partner and not a dictator in the whole thing.”

John is obviously deeply passionate about point-to-points and wants to see it get the support it deserves from all sectors of the industry that have benefitted, and still do, from its participants.

He continues: “The track situation is another problem. There are a number of proper tracks, you get proper results and you can sell a horse. The rest of the tracks, they are great people to be putting them on but you could run a race and get a different result every day.

“I mean, the biggest landowner in Munster gets his living out of this game. The point-to-point scene put Coolmore and lots of other people on the road but they have no track available for a point-to-point. The people getting the real money out of this, people with stallions, need to come up trumps.

Minella Cocooner is the latest big race winner to come from John Nallen's university \ Healy Racing

“Or could a point-to-point be run at the Curragh? For example, the old track at Tralee could be rented out, look after it and run four meetings a year on it. I was approached about that last year and floated the kite but nobody got on board.

Like, Tattersalls put on a track, Goffs sponsor four-year-old maidens, but it is more participation you need. We need new tracks and tracks that are available. Richard Pugh [p2p.ie, Tattersalls Ireland] brought point-to-pointing to a different level, you would be hoping that now he is in Horse Racing Ireland he can have an influence.”

The sales companies need to work together for the common good too, he reasons. “There needs to be something like a Good Friday agreement between them. They are at each other 24/7; they need to sit down and have a meeting of the waters. They are having too many sales and some at not the right time. I agree with them doing the one this week in Ireland and they could do another one in June.

“This business of thinking when they get 15 horses together they have a sale, that is wrong. It devalues the product. They also need to stop creating a false market. The bottom line is that whoever buys horses should pay for them, that is where it is all wrong.”

Government support

He feels strongly that Government should have a role too but they are reluctant and too many politicians don’t understand horseracing. “If Larry Goodman or someone came up with a similar plan to sell that much agricultural goods as the value of point-to-point horses sold every year there would be government agencies throwing money and resources at him, like the IDA and every department would give him everything he wants to do it.

John was given an award in 2021 by Horse Racing Ireland to mark the success of Minella Times and Minella Indo in the Grand National and Gold Cup

“Or if somebody from an IT company came up with some idea, wouldn’t they be throwing what they like at him.”

The Gambling Regulation Bill is another example of government’s dangerous misunderstanding of horseracing, though the big bookmaker chains are at fault too.

“The problem is the betting industry doesn’t need racing any more”, he warns. “They have all these young fellas on phones at matches, betting on all sorts of rubbish. ‘Will the pigeon shit on the roof or will it shit in the field?’. Racing is getting the hammer from this advertising ban from that carry-on, they [the betting companies] want people to be at it 24/7, that is the real problem, not racing.”

Home operation

“Now, don’t get me wrong”, Nallen counters. “I know we are lucky with the operation we have here. ‘Corky’ Carroll runs the show, he has been with us 10 years, and Johnny Barry does a great job of riding and schooling them. My nephew Conor (Bowen) is 19 and he is going through the catalogues and watching for three-year-olds and he is probably more into it than I am now. He is an encyclopedia about the the whole thing; he is sharp now. His brother Sean is gone to England now after riding plenty of winners on the flat as an apprentice here. Sean has been riding since he was four or five.”

John with nephew Conor Bowen at Doncaster last week \ Sarah Farnsworth

Unfortunately, John accepts that not as many young people are as invested in racing as his nephews.

“When I was a young fella the point-to-pointing was [centred around] Cork/Waterford but the only university for horses seems to be in Wexford at the minute. There are no fellas under 25 at horses other than those lads. That is where the issue could be in future, bringing the lads on. You go down to Glencairn gallop [Jimmy O’Brien’s] on a Tuesday, there could be 30 lads there that would ride and school horses that know what they are doing. Without them we would have nothing, they are so important. I just worry that there aren’t that many young people coming in to the game to do that in future.”

But Nallen senses that there is an opportunity this year for more people to get into store horses.

“They said the store trade at Doncaster was bad. I was only there for one thing so I don’t know if the stock wasn’t there. But the store trade has to come back, the values of all these horses has to come down. There are loads of lads who can afford to put a horse worth 50k or 60k in training. But if it is worth 150k then they will say ‘Well, we will sell it and put an extension on the house for that’. But more lads might get involved this year. So long as they are in at the right margins they have a chance. What is wrong with buying a store for 25k and, if he wins, getting 70 or 80 for him and there is something left for the next man? Then you are back again.”

He explains further: “The horse I got the big money for was a 20 grand foal and I got 20/1 for my money but you need every bit of it. If he was a hundred grand three-year-old, I’m only getting 4/1 for my money. No matter if you are Aidan O’Brien or the top trainer in France, nobody is going to convert 25% of what they put a saddle on. At the big money, the margin ain’t there. If you are selling sliced pans and you are putting too many of them in the skip, you will go broke. The big money horses, point-to-pointing isn’t designed for that operation.”

All this time John Nallen is in full flow, his phone is ringing with enquiries about this and that, until eventually it is time to go. Most importantly, he is in the middle of organising a trip to Ballinrobe with a (winning) newcomer, Minella Hollow, in the bumper that evening.

John said much more than can fit on these pages.

His basic message is an important one, though.

“This is a mighty industry but people need to come together for it more.”