RACEHORSE owner, breeder and race sponsor Tony O’Reilly passed away last Saturday, aged 88. The Tánaiste Micheál Martin was among those who attended his funeral Mass in Donnybrook Church in Dublin on Thursday.

Tony O’Reilly’s involvement in horseracing was more circumstantial than hands-on. He enjoyed considerable racecourse success with the bearers of his black and white hoops, but it would be no exaggeration to say that his biggest influence on Irish racing was through marrying Chryss Goulandris who established a significant racing and breeding operation here.

The first good horse to carry Tony O’Reilly’s silks was trained by his former rugby protégé, the late John Harty. They carried off the 1987 Ulster Harp National with General Joy, ridden by Tom McCourt. On the flat Vincent O’Brien credited Tony with significant winners in Andros Bay, successful in the 1992 Blandford Stakes under Lester Piggott, and Yukon Gold, winner of the Naas November Handicap in the hands of Pat Gilson that same year.

In the years either side of the millennium Michael ‘Mouse’ Morris saddled Foxchapel King to win both the Troytown Chase at Navan and Ericsson Chase at Leopardstown for the international businessman.

On the bloodstock front Castlemartin in Co Kildare remains O’Reilly’s monument, as summarised in this excerpt from Ballylinch 100.

“Tony O’Reilly and Susan, his Australian first wife, together with their six children, took possession of Castlemartin in 1972, at a cost of £200,000 for the mansion and the 250 acres that then remained.

“O’Reilly, a former rugby star and the first non-American to head the Heinz Corporation, refurbished the house and likewise the outbuildings. While acknowledging the considerable outlay involved, O’Reilly gave an insight into his motivation in an interview for The Wall Street Journal in the 1970s. “There was a day not long ago when people named O’Reilly stood outside a house like this, their noses pressed to the panes.”

In 1987 O’Reilly erected the Castlemartin Bridge to access the three farms acquired on the north-eastern bank of the Liffey, bringing the total acreage of the estate to 750, all divided into paddocks for bloodstock and cattle and all accessed by tarred roads. This activity took place at a time when the O’Reillys’ 25-year marriage had come to an end.”

O’Reilly was responsible for the long-running Heinz sponsorship of what is now the Phoenix Stakes. Run at the Phoenix Park and commonly known as “the 1500”, the Heinz 57 Phoenix Stakes was for many years recognised as the juvenile sprint championship and was traditionally staged on the Saturday of the Dublin Horse Show in the first week of August.

O’Reilly added further glamour to the occasion – for those fortunate to receive a coveted invitation – by hosting large dinner parties in Castlemartin following that day’s racing. Entries in the Castlemartin visitors’ book during that time included Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Peter Mandelson, Henry Kissinger, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck and Sean Connery, to name but a few.

One year the guest list included New York socialite and shipping heiress Chryss Goulandris to whom the then separated O’Reilly was immediately attracted. They married in the Bahamas in September 1991.

The petite, dark-haired Greek-American had become involved in racing and breeding in the 1970s, expanding her interests in that sphere following the death of her uncle, Constantine Goulandris, in 1978. Her inheritance included Haras de la Louviere, a 420-acre stud farm in Normandy. Her runners in France ran under the Petra bloodstock Agency banner, while American contenders ran as Skymarc Farm, reared on her Matagorda Stud.

Known in Ireland as Lady O’Reilly (following Tony’s knighthood from Queen Elizabeth in 2001 “for long and distinguished service to Northern Ireland”, in recognition for his work as head of The Ireland Funds charity) she established a significant racing and breeding operation from her Castlemartin base.

Her trainers included Dermot Weld, Kevin Prendergast, John Oxx and Eddie Lynam. She won the Blandford Stakes with Chiang Mai and the Pretty Polly Stakes with Rebelline. Verglas, a winner for her at Royal Ascot, subsequently stood at the Irish National Stud, of which Chryss became long-serving chairperson from 1997. Her death last August, aged 73, was universally mourned.