ANDREW and Gemma Brown have enjoyed a spectacular introduction to horse racing and the role of Joey Logan as their manager has been central to that impact.

The Browns, operating under the banner of their successful company Caldwell Construction, entered the fray with high ambition and have invested accordingly.

Not that their spending is of the headline-making variety, mind you. Relatively, they are certainly not anything like the biggest spenders. They don’t recruit from the point-to-point circuit.

Yet as self-made high achievers, the Stoke natives are only interested in operating at the major festivals and at graded level. That is why they have Gordon Elliott training their charges.

Their emphasis has been almost exclusively on acquiring stores, which in itself is a hugely competitive environment with the point-to-point handlers as well as many of the top trainers on both sides of the Irish Sea getting involved.

Yet in just about four years – and in truth, primarily from last season, when they first began to participate in real numbers – they are closing in on €900,000 accumulated in prize money.

In 2021/2022, Mighty Potter, Fil Dor and Pied Piper were all multiple graded winners, after Grand Paradis had gotten them off the mark in that class when delivering the Grade 3 Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle at Thurles in February 2021.

Mighty Potter is the blue-eyed boy as a triple Grade 1 victor and current favourite for the Turners Chase at Cheltenham, coming from the first crop of 15 or so unbroken three-year-olds Logan purchased for the Browns three years ago. Boothen Boy, Hiaou and the ill-fated Top Bandit were others from that group to go on and win races.

Racing bug

Logan initially got to know Andy Brown through a syndicate that helped cultivate Brown’s racing bug and so was tasked with the considerable task of sourcing stock to compete at elite level, without the benefit of any form guidance.

The boss of Grangeclare Stud in Kilmeague has delivered in spades thanks to his years of experience, as well as a considerable amount of graft.

“It’s brilliant for the game to have Andy and Gemma coming in from Britain, putting so much money into racing here and doing so well,” says Logan.

“For my part, it does take up a lot of time. There’s a lot of work in it. We’ve started off at a high standard. Andy and Gemma only want good horses and they don’t want to buy point-to-pointers. They only want to buy young horses.

“To try to find the good ones as stores and then be able to buy them, it’s so competitive. If you get beaten in the ring, you get beaten on the track.

“You’re going around France and Ireland trying to get them and you’ve Willie Mullins, Henry de Bromhead, Paul Nicholls, Tom Malone, Nicky Henderson – all these guys with endless money. You have to be on the go.

“The sales for me is a full-time job. I’m at every sale in Ireland, England and France. Then you’re going watching the horses work, you’re going racing at the weekend and go point-to-pointing.”

The points relate to his own thriving operation, that centres on selling through that sphere.

“It’s where I love going. That’s at the heart of it. I get a great buzz out of it. To be honest, the first thing I do is look at the entries. I’m mad to go point-to-pointing. That’s where I want to be.”

Graduates

Among his graduates include triple Grade 1 winner Finian’s Oscar, sold for £250,000 after a Portrush maiden triumph having been purchased for €50,000, and Grangeclare West, the highly talented though somewhat brittle son of Presenting he bought for €62,000 and sold for £430,000 after a Lingstown stroll.

The son of Presenting disappointed in the Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle and at the Dublin Racing Festival but may have been sick.

Champagne West, Aspire Tower and Coolagh Forest are other talented horses Logan has pre-trained and pinhooked along the way, after Logans Run got the ball rolling in 2007 when sold for £220,000, having been acquired for €24,000 a Goffs.

“I have a good few four-year-olds to run this year. I pre-train them here and then send them to Denis Murphy to run in point-to-points.

“All my horses go to the sales. Like Working Away, I owned a percentage of her. She was sold for £330,000 – Michael O’Leary bought her. Some people were saying if she was any good, wouldn’t Andy Brown buy her? But all my horses go to the sales and are sold and whoever wants to buy them, buys them. Maybe I need to market that better.

“I keep nothing for Andy and Gemma. They buy stores. All the horses I buy for myself got to the sales and are sold and there’s been some amount of graded winners amongst them over the years.”

Working Away actually comes from a long line of Grangeclare mares, her dam and the many generations down the page having been bred by Tom Hendy and his family at Grangeclare Stud before Logan became the proud proprietor of the farm.

He bought the daughter of Workforce from Marie Harding’s Glen Stables for €34,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale and it is that sort of eye that Brown is counting on when it comes to his own acquisition of stores.

Flagbearer

Mighty Potter is the flagbearer of the Caldwell crew, having added the Grade 1 Drinmore Chase and the Ladbroke Novices Chase to his two novice hurdle Grade 1 triumphs. Like most of Logan’s purchases, he was always going to be more suited to the larger obstacles.

“From day one I’ve been saying - everyone that rode him said it too - he’s different to be honest with you. Jack (Kennedy) said after the Drinmore, if they were going faster, he would have been even better.

“He wasn’t concentrating when he made those mistakes. A normal horse would fall asunder doing that. He knuckled at the back of one and went through the fence in another. He’d so much in the tank it was unbelievable.”

Mighty Potter augmented his reputation at the Dublin Racing Festival and excitement is mounting now in the build-up to Cheltenham.

He bombed out in the Supreme last year but Logan has no worries about that for the horse who will only be marking his sixth calendar birthday three days before the commencement of this year’s festival.

“He’s developed physically and mentally this year. He’s 17hh and is only growing into himself. That form in the Drinmore was boosted as (Gaillard Du Mesnil) won in Leopardstown. That was a 156-rated horse when Mighty Potter beat him.

“It was a serious performance and as Jack said, after he jumped the last, he was nursing him home.

Big baby

“He was such a big baby last year... When they went down the chute at the front, he got very wound up with the crowd and he actually got away on Jack. Down at the start, he was acting the maggot too.

“Around five out then, he went through the hurdle and Jack minded him and that was a very clever thing to do as he came back and won at Punchestown, when he was very good. Now after Leopardstown, it’s all systems go for the Turners.”

Although he had an entry in the Arkle (“this horse has serious gears but he settles so well, he’ll stay three miles too”), Fil Dor is already earmarked for the two-mile contest.

A shuddering mistake three out when the revs were being increased put paid to the Doctor Dino five-year-old’s chances of scoring at the highest level at Leopardstown over Christmas but connections weren’t too downhearted, though he has a bit to make up from the Goffs Irish Arkle to contest for major honours at Prestbury Park.

“The beginners’ chase in Navan was very good and Jack said he was attacking his fences. He was only bowling along at Christmas and Jack said he landed on the fence. He could have pulled him up but he just gave him a squeeze and he picked up again.

“That mistake happened in the real important part of the race in a Grade 1, so what he did was a hard thing to do and we’re not losing faith in him at all. We think he’s very good.”

Flat recruit

A very rare flat recruit, Pied Piper, who finished just behind Fil Dor in third in last year’s Triumph Hurdle and has won easily twice around Cheltenham, never got into contention in the Matheson Hurdle, but was found to have suffered from a fibrillating heart.

He was subsequently cleared for activity and put up a much stronger showing in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Dublin Racing Festival.

“The Champion Hurdle is the likeliest route. It’s different class as a race. Constitution Hill, State Man… I can’t say he’ll beat them but he’s a fair good horse and he deserves an entry and he’ll have a few others.

“We could keep him and go to Aintree either, but he loves Cheltenham so we’ll have to keep that in mind. He’s gotten stronger and had been working very well before Christmas and he’s got a bright future.”

Chemical Energy is another course winner, with the National Hunt Chase in his diary.

“He was very good at Cheltenham in October. Him and Mighty Potter could be our two best chances but we have a few.

“I think Doctor Bravo is a very smart horse. He won the bumper named after Gordon’s uncle. He was turning six so we went hurdling. He needs a bit of experience and all going well we’ll go for the Supreme. But whatever happens this year, this horse has a big future over fences.”

Jazzy Matty could be a Boodles contender, Molly’s Mango is a mare he likes and Firm Footings, a half-brother to Monalee, will also make an exciting chaser he contends. He is hopeful of a return to form for Grand Paradis too after a wind operation.

Lot of luck

“It has been unbelievable last year and this year. They’re a young bunch of horses. These are horses that were bought as stores mostly and, as everyone knows, it takes time to build up a team of horses like that. It also takes a lot of luck to try buy the right horse.

“As Gordon says, every horse that arrives into the yard from me is 16.2hh, 16.3hh. Maybe I’m going to have to change that but I’ve been looking at point-to-pointers all my life and over the years, isn’t that what people want, a big chasing type?

“If we could get a Cheltenham winner now, we’d be very happy. It’d be a dream.

“It’s so hard. You go there with five or six horses with really good chances and mightn’t get there. Last year, we were second and third in the Triumph Hurdle. Going there, you’re hoping and praying you’d get one winner out of it. This year, hopefully we’ll have between 10 and 15 horses going… to have any winner at Cheltenham would be just different gravy.”

This article is taken from The Irish Field Cheltenham Magazine 2023. CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY