MOST aspects of racing divide opinions, be it the strength of form, the abilities of a particular jockey, or the appeal of a certain stallion. One indisputable fact is that Patrick Cooper has never been one to sit on the fence, whether it be on his self-confessed ‘crusade on the Irish Derby’, or having the confidence to buy a horse for what some may perceive as a too-good-to-be-true price.

Indeed, when asked what career he might have pursued if he hadn’t become a bloodstock agent, he wryly replies, “The thought of arguing that black is white has always appealed, so I’d quite like to be a barrister.”

When faced with the decision after college, Cooper admits he had no idea what he wanted to do, and upon the suggestion of his father, the late and esteemed bloodstock agent Tom Cooper, he began riding out, ‘badly’ by his own admission, for Joan Moore. He went on to spend a stint at Haras d’Etreham, two years in South Africa, time with Colin Hayes and made a final stop at Claiborne Farm.

Learning curve

“Then I thought I knew it all, so I went out on my own,” he adds. When did reality bite? “Very early. Starvation does that to you,” he quips. “It took me a very long time to work out that you have to actually put some money up to make any money; the commission business doesn’t do it.” Since then, Cooper has proven himself a top-class judge of a horse, often for excellent value. The BBA Ireland agent describes 60,000gns buy and multiple group winner Curtain Call as “the real life changer”, while another notable purchase at €55,000 was Nassau Stakes second One Voice.

The Group 1 runner-up was owned by trainer Jessica Harrington with John Hennessy and Carmel Acheson, and the same connections head to Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Vermeille with the progressive filly Sea The Boss. Cooper’s €35,000 buy earned her place when landing the Group 3 Jannah Rose Stakes earlier this season and is bred to appreciate the step up in trip.

“It’s great for them,” Cooper says of the owners, but reveals she could easily have carried his wife Juliette’s blue silks. “I was annoyed, because when I bought her I thought, I’m gonna keep this one for myself. The next thing, Jessie appeared beside me, and said that’s for us, so I had to hand her over.”

He laughs as he tells the story, evidently harboring no hard feelings, perhaps helped by the fact that he and his wife have their own talented filly in Village Voice. Now a three-time stakes winner following Friday’s impressive listed win at Saint-Cloud, and placed in four group races, the daughter of Zarak has more than repaid the 38,000gns she cost at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale.

“That was a good example of how BBA works,” Cooper says of her purchase. “I actually wasn’t at the sales, but Michael Donohoe was there and I sent him a list of horses. The videos now mean you can really see what these horses look like. The only thing you can’t see is the height, which is really important. You get to know the smaller grooms, though!

“I’m kind of a bit of a pedigree snob and Zarak was just starting to come on the radar. Obviously, he was a son of Dubawi, and he’d been put up to 25 grand. I loved her. Michael was in the ring and bought her for 38,000gns.” Ever skeptical, I ask what the catch was. “She actually is lovely,” Cooper insists. “She was a steal. I mean, she really was.”

Lucky strike

Cooper has himself sometimes worried what he’s missed, a perfect example being when he bought a Gleneagles half-sister to Group 1 Gallante for 27,000gns. Having been impressed by her during showings, the agent surmised she was out of his budget. “I just didn’t bother following her in. I was in watching a race in the green room in Tattersalls, while she was in the ring, and saw she was stuck at about 18 grand. I thought this is really weird.

“So, I wandered in to the ring, and she’d got to about 25 or something, and I had to put my hand up before the hammer fell. The next thing I knew, we owned it. Then I started to sweat, thinking there is something horribly wrong here.”

It turned out he had nothing to worry about. Later named Silence Please, she made a winning debut for Cooper and Harrington, before being purchased privately by Gary Barber and Team Valor. She never finished out of the first five during her career, winning at listed and Group 3 level, and placing in six stakes races. “There’s loads of luck involved, most of it is luck,” Cooper reflects.

One of Cooper’s most recent success stories is the multiple stakes-placed Kinesiology, who lines up in today’s Group 3 Tonybet ‘We’re Here To Play’ Stakes at Leopardstown. “He was a bit unlucky, in that he got disqualified the last time, so it’s the obvious race for him to go for. The rules of the Alpha Syndicate is that they get sold at the end of their three-year-old career, so he’s on the market. Hopefully we can win it. I mean, it’s a winnable race on ratings, but it’s a tough Group 3.”

The Study Of Man colt cost €65,000, an important detail for Alpha Racing’s horses, Cooper explains. “It’s 50 grand in, plus you pay your training fee, so it’s not a cheap syndicate. This year we’ve got five and a half horses, three of which are stakes horses. If you treat each horse as a unit, if you go and give 200 grand for a yearling colt and it wins a maiden at the Curragh, they want to give you 200 for it. But if you buy the same horse for 70 and you’re getting 200 then you know you’ve got a profit. So that’s why we sort of shop in that bracket, because we know they’re going to get resold.”

Cooper’s formula for sourcing value is simple. “Stand at the side of the ring and wait. It’s patience.” He adopts the same approach when buying horses to carry his wife’s colours, too. “We just buy value, it’s purely on price.” He provides an amusing answer when I ask if he breeds from his good fillies. “Owning a broodmare is about the dullest thing you can ever do. I mean, you get two phone calls a year, one to say she’s in foal, one to say she slipped.”

Days to cherish

Good value is also key when Cooper buys for It’s All About The Girls, the female-only syndicate led by Elaine ‘Legs’ Lawlor. “Legs runs a really good show; it’s all her, I’m just Legs’ bitch,” he says with grin. “It’s six and a half grand in, and we buy two cheap fillies a year. Legs has big lunch parties, and that sort of thing, it’s a lifestyle sort of idea. You’ve got to make it fun.”

This year’s juveniles are recent maiden winner Kodilicious and debut scorer Lady O, who doubled her tally with an impressive performance at the Galway Festival. One of the syndicate’s most memorable days came at the 2018 Irish Champions Weekend, when Sparkle’n’joy beat Foxtrot Liv and Iridessa to win the Listed Ingabelle Stakes.

Cooper’s most cherished Leopardstown memory, though, is undoubtedly Snow Fairy’s brilliant victory in the Irish Champion Stakes, having gone close the previous year. Cooper, who is racing manager to the mare’s owner/breeder Mrs Patino, recalls, “She broke the course record that day. Aidan sent out Daddy Long Legs and they went some gallop; they were setting it up for St Nicholas Abbey. She got what she really wanted, which was a mile and a quarter with a really fast pace. That’s why she won in Hong Kong, and the Japanese races are a bit like that.”

The reception Snow Fairy received from the crowd also sticks out in Cooper’s mind. “She put up such a fight to So You Think, and they were little and large, the two of them, I think the crowd the following year sort of remembered the courage she showed the year before, and really took her to heart.”

Star attraction

The Irish Champions Stakes is now one of the highlights of the Irish Champions Festival, and on the event, Cooper comments, “I think it’s absolutely brilliant. Snow Fairy, obviously, to me, was the best day, but the day that Sea The Stars won it, the place was rocking, it really was. Because there was a superstar there.

“We have to get the good horses to go to the good races, because that brings in people who aren’t normally fans of the sport. They want to come. They hear about these things. Everyone loves a hero, so they come to see these horses.

“Champions Weekend is fantastic, but I guarantee if you went up to sit on the corner of Grafton Street, no one would even know it’s going on. Again, this is one of the things I have about the Irish Derby; you have to have something for you guys to sell. I mean, who could have sold the Irish Derby this year? It was nothing of a race. There we are getting Lisa Hogan to go to the Irish Derby, but I’d rather have seen City Of Troy.

“City Of Troy, the best horse in the world, who’s trained in Ireland, isn’t even going to run in Ireland this year. I don’t think St Mark’s Basilica ever ran in Ireland as a three-year-old. Dawn Approach never ran in Ireland as a three-year-old. Champions Weekend is fantastic, but I don’t think it really has any resonance outside of our world. I don’t know how you change that, apart from getting the best horses.”

Cooper’s frustrations extend further. “It (racing) is shrinking at an alarming rate. Show jumping and snooker were huge sports when I was growing up, and they both disappeared completely. So, it can disappear. If we didn’t have Sky Television and Racing TV, we’d be in awful trouble. It’s a TV sport now, and has been for quite a long time.

“I’ve one daughter who’s working for Arsenal and one daughter who’s in digital marketing in Sydney. They think we’re in the Dark Ages. There aren’t enough people like you who are taking charge. Nothing changes - it’s the same old grey heads, and the same old grey committees. You lot should be running this, not us.”

He practices what he preaches, too, with BBA Ireland taking on young agent Adam Potts earlier this year. “We need youth in this game. We’re all getting grey haired and it’s time to move on, to sit at the beach. So, you need people like Adam to come in, and the people that know them are the next generation.

“There’s a really good bunch of young guys out there. You look at the Power brothers (Tradewinds Stud), and these young, hungry pinhookers; they’re up before dawn, they’re out, they’ve done the research, they’re running around. You might be able to outthink them every now and then, but you certainly can’t outrun them.”

Another name Cooper is keen to mention is Kate Harrington. “She is really good, she’s the best young trainer in Ireland. Last year, Jessie wasn’t there at all as she was sick, and Kate really transformed. She works every hour of every day.”

Cooper is as quick to praise, as he is to question and suggest change. It’s all driven by a clear love for the industry, as articulated towards the end of our conversation. “It’s a really, really good game this. It’s just a great sport. It’s great fun.” Hear, hear.