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FINDING successful stallions is one of the most difficult tasks in the bloodstock business and to do so usually involves plenty of hard graft, perseverance and sometimes a bit of good fortune by being in the right place at the right time. It can sometimes involve stories that wouldn’t be out of place in a detective novel.
Stud owners sometimes source stallions directly but it is frequently in collaboration with a bloodstock agent.
Tally-Ho Stud in Co Westmeath has one of the strongest flat sire rosters in Ireland, with Kodiac and Mehmas their flagship sires and the operation’s Roger O’Callaghan explained what they look for in a prospective stallion.
“We look for speed, class and presence in a stallion,” he explains. “Of course, you have to be happy with a horse’s physical standpoint but every horse will have some fault so you will have to forgive something, that is the nature of the game. If we identify a colt we think will suit our needs then we follow him and do our best to buy him. When we saw Mehmas beat Blue Point in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, that made up our minds.We had to have him. Ross Doyle put together a deal for his purchase the following day.”
Such is Tally-Ho’s reputation for standing successful sires that sometimes the owners of high-class colts in training approach the O’Callaghans, to see if they will become partners in the stallion. “There can be many different types of syndication,” Roger says.
Instinct
Rathbarry Stud in Fermoy, Co Cork, and its National Hunt division Glenview, has been one of the leading stallion farms in the country for decades, notably standing the the great Acclamation, who passed away only last month.
Owner Catherine Cashman recalls how unearthing Acclamation was down to her late husband Liam’s instinct for looking beyond the obvious.
“In fairness to Liam, not many people were all that taken with a son of Royal Applause as a prospective stallion as he had no sons at stud but Liam felt that his racing record was good enough and his dam had won the Queen Mary Stakes, plus he liked him as an individual, so he was willing to go with him.”
Patrick Cooper of the British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland) put the deal together and he remembers that it was finalised while he was in a motorway services stop outside Swindon! Such is the life of a bloodstock agent.
His colleague John Tyrrell also recalls some of the the deals he helped broker for two giants of the National Hunt scene to come to Ireland - Robin Des Champs to the aforementioned Rathbarry Stud (“Liam Cashman felt that he had a similar look to Presenting and that clinched it for him.”) and Old Vic to Sunnyhill Stud (“He was the first top-class son of Sadler’s Wells to switch to a National Hunt stud, so it was quite a big deal at the time.”)
Sometimes, contact is made from the other side; an owner or agent puts out feelers about a horses that is on the market.
Mrs Cashman relates how a young, up-and-coming Anthony Stroud of the Curragh Bloodstock Agency put forward Strong Gale as a proposition to Liam back in the early ‘80s. One trip to Germany later and the future breed-shaping jumps sire was bought from Gestut Rottgen and was on his way to Cork.
The connection at that time with the renowned horseman and agent Ronald Rauscher, who was then working in Rottgen, helped in later years when Rathbarry sought out Sholokhov for their roster, this time purchased from Gestut Etzean.
Mrs Cashman expanded: “We had been following Sholokhov for some time. He had been getting some nice winners both on the flat and over jumps, notably Don Cossack, so we were happy to be able to buy him.”
Hands-on
Con O’Keeffe, owner of Kilbarry Lodge Stud in Co Waterford, is more hands-on and personally procured his top jumps sire Diamond Boy through local knowledge of the stud in Normandy where he was standing, Haras de la Croix Sonnet.
The son of Mansonnien had started to make a splash with runners and with his stock at the sales in Ireland so the decision was made to buy him and it has proven to be a shrewd one. His first Irish crop are now five-year-olds and he continues to enhance his record. On the other hand, O’Keeffe pursued Harzand for a number of years; “I must have called Pat Downes [Aga Khan Studs Irish manager] every year for three years, looking to buy Harzand and eventually we came to a deal,” he admits. Again, it looks like being a fruitful acquisition, as the dual Derby winner has produced a number of promising jumps runners since moving to Waterford.
Finally, the renowned bloodstock agent Bobby O’Ryan relates the story of the highest-priced and most accomplished stallion at stud in Ireland - the amazing Wootton Bassett.
Standing at Coolmore Stud for an advertised fee of €300,000, he was underestimated from an early stage in his life but has risen to become one of the pre-eminent stallions in Europe, rightly ranking alongside some of the greats.
O’Ryan recalls that he was scolded for going over budget when buying the horse at the Doncaster Yearling Sales, paying £46,000 for a son of Iffraaj, a sire who wasn’t to everyone’s liking. Then the colt went unbeaten in five juvenile starts, including valuable sales races at York and Doncaster plus the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc day at Longchamp.
While his form tapered off as a three-year-old, he should still have been an attractive stud proposition yet O’Ryan revealed that the horse was rejected by numerous Irish and British studs so ended up at Haras d’Etreham, from where he began his phenomenal rise to current status as a supersire.
Stallion Trail visitors can have the privilege of standing in his immense presence at Coolmore knowing that here is one of the world’s leading stallions whose own pedigree was ordinary but he did it the hard way and exceeded expectations by some measure. It is a salutory lesson that a great sire isn’t always an obvious one and can come from left of field.
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