BUSINESS is brisk down at Coolballyshan Stud near Adare, the base of Ireland’s most popular stallion O.B.O.S Quality.
For owner Kieran Kennedy, the business of standing stallions and producing young horses benefits the Irish sport horse industry. “It’s about keeping the money in the country,” he maintains.
A third-generation stallion owner (his grandfather Michael and father Bill stood stallions in Co Kerry), Kieran and his family pride themselves on their commitment to Irish breeders by investing in each stallion. “We’ve owned 100% of them, the horses that we brought here,” states Kieran, who operates their main breeding station at Adare.
His brother Liam runs their competition and young horse yard at Dohyle House Stud, while their parents Bill and Anna, plus sister Sinead, manage the original Kennedy Equine Centre base in Tralee.
Kieran also operates Kennedy Brothers Sporthorses (KBS) with Liam and recently had a team of 20 four and five-year-olds competing at the Millstreet International Tour shows. They also sold Focus Vivendi KBS, bred by Michael Buckley, for €100,000 at last year’s Go For Gold show jumping sale.
O.B.O.S Quality, their flagship stallion, needs no introduction. By Olympic gold medallist Big Star’s sire Quick Star, he has produced a constant stream of winners including Swiss Nations Cup star and Olympic horse Castlefield Eclipse, Lisona, Mark Q, Gowran Park and Badgerhill Quality. His numerous eventers include the four-star pair Luckaun Quality and OBOS O’Reilly, (competing at Rolex Kentucky this weekend), Ballingowan Pizazz and MSH Cooley Quality.
A hugely commercial sire, O.B.O.S Quality produced two leading novices: KBS July Johnson and KBS High Quality, consistent prizewinners in young horse championships at Balmoral, Dublin and Millstreet. Ridden by Jordan Coyle and current stable jockey Christian Coyle, the horses were sold abroad, which Kieran feels is an encouraging sign that international buyers are once again regarding Ireland as a place to source horses. “Martin Fuchs has sold on KBS July Johnson since, he was extra special,” he says commenting on how the Jim Seymour-bred continues to make profits for connections.
KBS July Johnson is out of a dam by Maltstriker, another KEC sire, and his 2015 Dublin results helped his Nenagh breeder win the RDS leading breeder prize that year. Kennedy rates Seymour, along with KBS High Quality’s breeder Peter Rice, as examples of “genuine breeders, they’re the backbone of the whole industry.
“The fringe players are sucking the life out of it and it’s a problem in every walk of life, everyone is an expert now.
“We can all breed a freak horse but to produce a nice blood foal, to be able to sell them and keep in the game - that’s what it’s about, because a lot of people have got out of breeding. In breeding, you need patience, good luck and a good mare,” says Kieran, who feels strongly about the commitment they’ve ploughed back into the business.
With up to 450 visiting mares to Adare and 60 young horses in work at Dohyle, that means employing yard staff and riders, plus local agricultural contractors, hired to produce their 2,500 bales of hay every year. “It all adds up and it’s all about keeping the money in the locality and Ireland, because the horse industry money is going out of the country. We have no other income than horses but it goes back into facilities, horses and the economy.”
All-in stud packages are one Coolballyshan incentive and other benefits include sales advice. “We breed and buy a lot of foals, if I can get a foal sold for a customer I will. We know all the news that goes on, what a stallion is really producing and how they’re selling, the breeder that might only go to a few shows mightn’t hear all this,” adds Kieran.
Their wide choice of stallions include the five-star rated Voltaire son Lancelot, already a proven sire of Nations Cup showjumpers such as Pavarotti, Rosinus, Titus and Tristan. Then there’s the Holsteiner Chacoa, by Contender, sire of Nicola Wilson’s three-star winner One Two Many and the 1.50m performer Future Trend, another to benefit since his Adare move by larger books of mares.
More to consider include the Dutch team horse Maximum Joe, used extensively on their own broodmare herd and whose young stock are now appearing under saddle. For thoroughbred stallion fans, there’s Australian import Barely A Moment, a winner of $1.3m prize money Down Under, while the newest addition is the three-year-old Lagans OBOS Quality, out of a Cavalier Royale dam.
Matisse de Mariposa, from the same dam line as Penelope Leprevost’s great Flora de Mariposa, will be available this year by A.I.
“He’s based in Belgium with Stal de Muze ... we wanted to buy him too,” adds Kieran Kennedy, another indication of the family’s longterm commitment to Irish sport horse breeding.
COOLBALLYSHAN STUD, ADARE, CO LIMERICK
Website: www.kennedyequinecentre.com
Email: kkennedystallions@gmail.com
Contact: Kieran Kennedy – 086 251 8020 or 066 712 6453/087 954 5120