Preparing horses is an art. Attention to detail is key, whether you are running a racing yard or a stud, whether your focus is breeding, pinhooking or the breeze-ups.

Invariably, the process takes time. You try to keep your head above water while learning, and like a manager of a sports team, you recruit the necessary skill sets that enable you to do your job better.

To be successful in any unit, you need to recognise your strengths and weaknesses, and create a group that fills in the blanks. That takes time.

Brendan Holland has built the prosperous enterprise that is Grove Stud in Fermoy with his wife Vanessa, from the ground up.

The astute Blarney native modestly attests to the role of fortune in the mammoth success at this year’s sales but Gary Player’s maxim comes to mind. Luck wouldn’t save a cowboy operation. You can get good horses and mess them up.

The results tell you that Holland and his crew did the very opposite. They had their most successful week ever at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale in the middle of April, selling five horses for 940,000gns. An eye-catching breeze led to an Invincible Spirit offspring becoming the highest-priced filly in Europe at that time, fetching 450,000gns.

A week later, Grove Stud provided the Doncaster Breeze-Up with a new record, when an Exceed And Excel filly was bought by Sheikh Fahad Al Thani for £340,000. That eclipsed the previous record by £40,000 and last year’s sales topper by £130,000.

This was a massive advertisement of the human talent at Grove Stud, as it represented a huge profit on the initial investment of €49,000 at the BBAG Sale in Germany the previous September.

Mind you, that was just a drop in the ocean compared to what followed a fortnight ago, when Nicolas de Watrigant smashed the record price for an Arqana breezer by forking out €750,000 for the Invincible Spirit colt at the Saint-Cloud Breeze-Up. That’s a 44% increase on the previous record for a son of Sea The Stars.

Once more, it showcased Holland’s eye for potential - having bought the colt for €55,000 at the Arqana October Yearling Sale - and his team’s ability to bring that potential to the fore.

It is a dream run and Holland is now hoping that the trio will deliver on the track.

“It’s important that some of these horses go on to compete at the highest level. The horse in France has gone to André Fabre and this is also hugely important.

“Making the money keeps the whole thing going around but long term it’s a huge advantage when they go to a good trainer. They have the best chance then of realising their potential and hopefully live up to the expectations you have of them. When a horse goes to André Fabre you’ve every chance.

“The Exceed and Excel filly that sold at Doncaster is going to David Baron and he’s a top, top trainer. She’s really, really exciting. I would be very disappointed if she couldn’t make a proper group filly.

“And the other filly that sold at Newmarket is going to Marco Botti. So your stock is going to the best trainers and getting the best chances. Hopefully the whole thing then repeats itself, that if (the horses) do well, (the buyers) come back. There’s no excuses. They’ve had a great preparation here and they’ve gone to great trainers.”

The clients are definitely returning. David Redvers, who bought the Doncaster filly for Sheikh Al Thani, knew what he was getting when he pushed that sale over the line.

“She is exactly the type we’re looking for,” said Redvers at the time. “We’ve done well with Exceed And Excel and she comes from a great place in Grove Stud. I bought Rosdhu Queen (winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes) off Brendan and he’s a great operator.”

Rosdhu Queen is one of three Group 1s that learned the ropes at the Holland farm, with the others being Astaire (Middle Park Stakes) and Termagant (Moyglare Stud Stakes).

Grove Stud has had placed horses in the Irish, English and French Guineas, as well as the Kentucky Derby. Two weeks ago, they had a Grade 3 winner at Belmont and The Grey Gatsby was an impressive victor of the Group 2 Dante Stakes.

“There’s two things about doing well at the sales,” Holland explains. “In the first place it shows we’re capable of producing horses at a high level and that’s always good publicity. That’s hugely important for me, the team and the business, that people know that and that that’s recognised; that we produce horses well.

“The other thing is equally as important. That they perform on the track. I’m sure they will because for three years in a row we’ve had 150 winners on the track, had 50 individual stakes horses last year, 14 runners in Royal Ascot, which is where you need to turn up. And we’re now dealing with better quality horses and the same numbers. There’s no reason why it won’t continue.”

Holland has been methodical about everything he has done, starting with accumulating the necessary experience to carve out a niche somewhere in the thoroughbred industry. He worked at Mount Coote Stud for Alan Lillingston, and for Liam Cashman at Glenview. He spent a year with leading Australian trainer, Gai Waterhouse and was Mark Johnston’s head man in England for eight years before deciding to come home 12 years ago.

“It was the yearlings first of all, then the breeding side of things and then I got some racing experience. I suppose my initial idea would have been to go training. Training always fascinates me and I suppose it fascinates most people in the industry at some stage.

“When I was working with Mark I started trading myself. I started pinhooking a couple of yearlings and foals with Joanna Morgan and that sort of grew. We had a bit of luck and that changed my outlook. Despite the fact that I was working for a really successful operation, I realised, when you got to see it up close, how tough (training) was.

“I also realised that maybe I wasn’t best suited to training and dealing with all the numbers of people. Trading suits my personality better than training. I’d rather answer to myself…”

He pauses. “Ah I probably just chickened out. There was an opportunity there at one stage to start training but the trading became successful in a smaller way and I decided to go home and try to develop that some more.”

Not his first smart decision. And definitely not the last. After two years renting, he and Vanessa bought the current property 10 years ago. The timing wasn’t tremendous, with the outbreak of foot-and-mouth, which meant that Holland couldn’t transport the few stock he had in England back over.

His old boss, Liam Cashman used to tell him that the first 10 years are the hardest and the only way Holland might disagree is in surmising that you could lengthen the timescale.

“It’s taken 12 years really to get to the level where we’re at now where we’re trying to compete more towards the upper end of the market, certainly in the two-year-old section, and also that we’re trying to upgrade the quality of foals and yearlings we’re presenting every year.

“It’s a long, slow process and extremely difficult. You’d want to be extremely dedicated and focused. You want a good work ethic and you want to get lucky. You need luck. We’ve had unbelievable luck this year, there’s no doubt about it. To land the quality of horse we got this year, there’s a lot of luck involved in that.”

You get what he is saying about Dame Fortune but would he have been as successful five years ago had he landed the same quality of horse? Who knows, but the boss has no doubts that it is a much better operation now.

“We’re probably in the stage where we have enough experience, and that I have built up a team around me, that we’re capable of handling horses of that quality and producing them to a standard. So the timing was right.

“We had a couple of very good years on the track from previous sales and we did benefit from that at the sales this year; that when we produced good horses people were confident that they were buying them from a good source. But that’s taken a long time to build up (in terms of) the quality of horses and the quality of staff around you, and your own experience that you can produce them properly.

“When I look back at the way I produced them 10 years ago, there’s no doubt I’m producing them better now. I haven’t discovered any magic formula but it’s just you learn as you go along. We did some new things this year and everything helps. It’s a combination of a lot of small things really.”

This year, after constant nagging from Morna McDowall, he altered the way he cares for the horses’ feet, in conjunction with his farrier, Brendan Walsh. He has also been more proactive in using the services of physio, Áine Dillon. He has tweaked the training too.

“We’ve learned how to get them fitter without being more demanding on them mentally or physically. That’s taken a while to get the hang of that.

“Historically, there has always been a nervousness in the market that two-year-olds are buzzed up when the trainer is getting them and they’re too keen. When you’re asking the horses to go that quick on their own, you’re asking them a big question mentally and it’s important that you prepare them properly; that they do that without you getting them buzzed up.

“That’s easier said than done but I’d be very conscious that the horses go into yards and that I don’t get a phone call three weeks later saying ‘what the hell have you done to this?’”

It all comes back to the team, whose feedback - as evidenced by McDowall’s suggestions - is integral. Mick O’Dwyer, Tom Henry, McDowall, Pat Costello, James Spillane, James Joyce and the Gallagher siblings, Bridget and Pierce all have major roles, combining horsemanship with years of invaluable experience, be it riding trackwork in the US (McDowall) or working for training legends, Willie Mullins and Jim Bolger (O’Dwyer).

“I’ve worked in Australia, I go to America every year and all over Europe, and I know it keeps getting repeated but we probably still don’t recognise the level of quality amongst Irish horse people. Every place I go to around the world, Irish guys are running the farms.

“They’re head men in the racing stables. And the people I have working for me have an awful lot of experience built up.

“It’s easy to take that for granted until you try to replace them with someone of the same calibre and then you realise how important they are. Quality staff can make you or cost you money. I’ve got a team that are making me money. They’re exceptional.”

Combining pinhooking and breeze-ups is a natural extension of his experience and complements the stud, given that he has the land to carry the yearlings and the facilities to train the two-year-olds. They are two different disciplines though when it comes to trading.

“We do a lot of homework first for both markets but I do have a slightly different head on when I’m buying them. When I’m buying foals you’re less forgiving of conformation and movement and sires.

“When I’m going buying the yearlings I’m definitely much more forgiving of conformation than I am with the foals… if the mare is getting runners to the track, she’s getting it despite what they look like so that’s a big guideline. I’ll go with that. That’s enough with me if I’m happy with the shape and movement of the whole thing.”

There is an obvious upturn in the marketplace once more, after a difficult period. Grove Stud did well to survive and consolidate given that it was a nascent concern finding its legs in the depths of a depression.

But racing has always attracted new investors. But when it comes down to it, Holland doesn’t concern himself too much with what’s happening with the market. You can only control the controllables and so for the team, that’s about supplying the best horse possible.

“The big players coming in only want the better horses. And while it does filter down, if you’re going to take real advantage of the change in the market, you need to upgrade, as the real changes are near the top. The middle is still soft and you don’t want to be at the bottom. You have to be as close to the top as you can.

“I never worry about the marketplace. I only ever worry about my own horses. If you produce your horses well, the market will look after that. I’ve been to lots of sales that were very strong but I made no money as my stock wasn’t good enough. It doesn’t matter what the market place is like, you either have the horse or you don’t. If you have the horse, you’ll be fine.”