Some of the highlights, which features 282 stores, include a Harzand (Ire) gelding out of Grade 3 winner Mae's Choice (Ire) (Presenting {GB}) (lot 179); a Soldier Of Fortune (Ire) filly out of a half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner Paisley Park (Ire) (Oscar {Ire}) (lot 257); and an Elusive Pimpernel half-sister to Grade 1 hurdler Flooring Porter (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) (lot 173).

All horses catalogued for the May Store Sale are eligible for the €100,000 Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper 2024.

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Trained by Dermot Weld and ridden by Pat Smullen, Harzand overcame a last-minute foot injury scare to win the 2016 G1 Derby to give his owner-breeder a fifth triumph in the Epsom Classic following Shergar (GB), Shahrastani, Kahyasi (Ire) and Sinndar (Ire). He then followed up with victory in the G1 Irish Derby.

Among Harzand's Flat runners this season is the 3-year-old Mostly Cloudy (Ire), whose five consecutive wins since mid-May have shone a light on the stable of his young trainer Gemma Tutty, who now has group-race targets in mind for the progressive stayer. From his first crop, members of which are now four, Harzand has been represented by the David Pipe-trained treble hurdle winner Kolisi (Ire).

“Harzand has sired some useful individuals from his initial crops conceived at Gilltown Stud, the oldest of which are now 4-year-olds,” said Pat Downes, Aga Khan Studs Director in Ireland.

“However in recent years he has predominately been supported by the National Hunt division and now moves to Con O'Keeffe's Kilbarry Lodge Stud where I am sure he will continue do very well, given he has stock yet to race out of some talented National Hunt race mares and broodmares.”

Harzand will stand alongside fellow Group 1 winner Success Days (Ire), Diamond Boy (Fr), and the Juddmonte-bred Pillar Coral (GB), a Sadler's Wells half-brother to the late Martaline (GB), at his new home in Co Waterford.

Con O'Keeffe, owner of Kilbarry Lodge Stud, said, “We are thrilled to acquire a horse of the calibre of Harzand for Kilbarry Lodge Stud. A dual Derby winner by the sensational Sea The Stars, he has the physical attributes, race record and pedigree that Irish breeders want in a National Hunt stallion. I have been in touch with Pat Downes over the past few years regarding purchasing this horse and my interest in the horse was strengthened on seeing the quality of his foals at the last two years of National Hunt foal sales. A tough, talented racehorse who achieved a Timeform rating of 126 when winning the Epsom Derby, in conjunction with great bone and presence, Harzand has all the qualities to be an exceptional National Hunt stallion.”

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“After the great successes we have had with our Mare Syndicates model, we are delighted to create another unique opportunity for people to get involved in the breeding industry, for a modest fee and follow the life of a foal from birth through to selling in November,” said Cathal Beale, CEO, Irish National Stud. “The aim will be to sell for a profit on the investment, but the guarantee will be a shared ownership experience like no other.”

There are 400 shares available to purchase for a single payment of €330.95 per share (including taxes and charges). For more information, visit https://www.equideq.com/horse/7.

Patrick Diamond, Bloodstock and Nominations, Irish National Stud added, ”She is a filly of real quality, from day one she has looked very classy. She walks extremely well with a huge overstride, she really has a presence about her. In time she will have great appeal as race filly by Invincible Spirit having such a strong family behind her.”

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Standing alongside Sea The Stars at Gilltown is his dual Derby winning son Harzand (Ire), who had his first 2-year-olds this year. He will remain at his fee of last year at €8,000.

Heading the Aga Khan’s French stallions at Haras de Bonneval is worldwide sensation Siyouni (Fr), who goes up to €140,000 after two years at €100,000. Siyouni’s seven group winners in 2020 remarkably included four Group 1 winners, headed by Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe scorer Sottsass (Fr) and also including Poule d’Essai des Pouliches victress Dream And Do (Fr), Dewhurst winner St Mark’s Basilica (Fr) and E.P. Taylor S. winner Etoile (Fr).

Standing alongside Siyouni at Bonneval is first-crop yearling sire Zarak (Fr) and Dariyan (Fr), whose first 2-year-olds this year included two black-type performers in France. Zarak and Dariyan, both Group 1 winners, stand at unchanged fees of €12,000 and €8,000, respectively.

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The news of the death of Pat Smullen at the age of just 43 was followed by a flood of heartfelt tributes. They came both from within the racing world, united for once in sentiment, and from those outside its sphere, including the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

As befits a man of his sporting prowess, Smullen was revered beyond the shores of his home country but he stayed true to Ireland throughout his prolific career, despite some lucrative offers to ride abroad. His achievements can be measured not just by his nine Irish Champion Jockey titles and 12 Classic victories but in his extraordinary longevity as stable jockey to Dermot Weld. In a riding career that spanned 25 years, he spent two decades at Weld’s Rosewell House on the Curragh, a fact that says as much for his outstanding riding ability as it does for the loyalty and dependability of the man himself.

Patrick Joseph Smullen was born on May 22, 1977, in Rhode, Co Offaly. From first sitting on a pony as a 12-year-old, he was, like his elder brother Sean, quickly drawn to horses and left school at the age of 15 to pursue his dream of a career as a jockey.

Apprenticed to his local trainer Tom Lacy at Tullamore, Smullen did not take long to record the first of his near-2,000 winners when riding Vicosa to victory at Dundalk on June 11, 1993.

Lacy’s son Tony paid a moving tribute to Smullen from Kentucky on Wednesday.

He said, “Pat set a standard that we’d all like to achieve but never could. Not just in his riding career, but when you look at the outpouring of grief, it comes from everyone, even the President of Ireland. Pat was a farmer’s son and honesty was personified in his father Paddy. The man Pat was came from his family. His mother is humble, gracious and sincere, his brothers the same way.”

Recalling his early association with the teenage pony racer, Lacy added, “His father had approached my dad and said ‘Pat doesn’t want to go to school, he wants to be a jockey’. He’d been learning some riding skills by going in at the weekends to Joanna Morgan and he had such determination. That is the one way I would describe Pat in his early years: determined. You often see young people coming through and wanting to be a jockey but they rarely have the true determination and focus. But the first thing that struck me about Pat was that he was a young guy intent on improving himself, who was buying and watching VHS tapes of Mick Kinane. He idolised Mick Kinane and studied him really carefully.”

Smullen underlined his closeness to the Lacy family when reflecting on his riding career last year.
“They took me in and treated me like one of their own,” he said. “They gave me an opportunity to ride and one of the achievements that I’m most proud of was being champion apprentice two years running while I with Tom. That was something very special.”

It was quickly apparent to the racing world that Smullen was himself something very special. He served a spell working as second jockey to Johnny Murtagh for John Oxx. Then, just six years after riding his first winner, he succeeded his idol Mick Kinane in one of the plum jobs in Irish racing at Weld’s powerful stable, thus beginning one of the most enduring partnerships of the turf.

Kinane’s were no easy shoes to fill but Smullen quickly adapted to the role. Having been champion apprentice in 1995 and 1996, he claimed his first professional title in 2000, the year after joining Weld.

“He was the professional’s professional,” said the trainer of his long-time ally in a video to commemorate Smullen being presented with the Cartier Award of Merit in November 2019.

Smullen retained the championship in 2001, the year in which he formed an even more important alliance with his marriage to Frances Crowley, whom he had met when they were both working in Dubai. The first female to be crowned champion amateur rider in Ireland, Crowley also trained successfully, first from Piltown at the base used with distinction by her father Joe Crowley, brother-in-law and sister Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien, and now by her nephew Joseph O’Brien. With Smullen, she moved to Clifton Lodge to train on the Curragh, where she recorded the greatest success of her training career when saddling Saoire (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) to win the Irish 1000 Guineas in 2005. It was a day made even more special by her husband winning the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup aboard the Weld-bred and -trained Grey Swallow (Ire) (Daylami {Ire}). Having made another entry in the history books by becoming the first woman to train an Irish Classic winner, Crowley relinquished her licence three years later to concentrate on raising their children.

Smullen acknowledged his wife’s contribution to his career last year when announcing his retirement in his TDN column.

“Our best day as a family was when she won the 1000 Guineas with Saoire and I won the Tattersalls Gold Cup on Grey Swallow on the same day for Dermot Weld,” he recalled. “She was a great rider herself and an exceptionally good trainer, and she gave it up to support me in my career and to raise our family. You can’t ask for more from one person than what she has given me.”

By that stage, big-race wins were almost a formality for Smullen. He claimed two Irish 1000 Guineas himself, the first on Nightime (Ire), the filly who became the first Classic winner for her sire Galileo (Ire), as well as two Irish Derbys and an Irish Oaks. Of his many successful partnerships on the track, Smullen counted his four Irish St Leger victories aboard the super-tough Vinnie Roe (Ire) (Definite Article {GB}) as being among his most memorable achievements.

His position with Weld gave Smullen the opportunity to ride for many of the sport’s great owner-breeders and it is well documented that for him, the best of days came when winning the 2016 Derby on Harzand (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) for the Aga Khan.

However, it was perhaps fitting that his first Group 1 victory, from before his time with Weld, came aboard Tarascon (Ire) (Tirol {Ire}) for Tommy Stack in the Moyglare Stud S. of 1997. Later, it was the Haefner family’s Moyglare Stud with which Smullen was most readily associated. Among the major wins recorded for Moyglare came his first British Classic success in the 2000 Guineas with Refuse To Bend (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells). He also won the G1 Prince Of Wales’s S. with Free Eagle (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and the GI Matriarch S. at Hollywood Park on Dress To Thrill (Ire) (Danehill). Following his retirement from the saddle last year, Smullen was appointed racing advisor at Moylgare Stud for Eva-Maria Bucher-Haefner, working alongside his friend Fiona Craig.

In the year Smullen achieved his crowning glory as a rider at Epsom, he also secured his ninth and final jockeys’ title, having been at the top of this list in three consecutive seasons since wresting the championship from his nephew Joseph O’Brien. Only Mick Kinane, with 13 titles, has been champion jockey in Ireland on more occasions.

In the countdown to the start of the turf season in March 2018, Smullen was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The driven, sometimes inscrutable character he had been in his race-riding days gave way to one who became a candid ambassador, both for racing and for fellow cancer sufferers. The ice in his veins melted under his own warmth of personality and, one hopes, the love and support shown to him by his many friends and admirers after the news of his illness was announced.

Through two major operations and bouts of chemotherapy in that first year, it was clearly Smullen’s intention to return to the saddle. When he started his popular weekly column in TDN in March 2019, he talked openly about how horses were an important part of his therapy.

“As a rider I always loved the mornings,” he said. “I loved getting the feel of a good horse and I think my feedback in the mornings was pretty good as well. I’m looking forward to getting back to riding work. It will give me that buzz that I need. That’s what strengthens me, the excitement of getting back on a horse and the sooner that happens, the better.”

Smullen returned to riding out later that spring and, though fully accepting of the medical advice that he should not put his body through the rigours required to make a competitive comeback, he was already planning one last hurrah as part of a grand fundraising drive for Cancer Trials Ireland. As it transpired, the Pat Smullen Champions Race, run on Irish Champions Weekend in 2019, would not feature the man himself in the saddle. Though visibly struggling after the cancer had returned, he was however there in person to greet some of his greatest former rivals returning from retirement to honour their friend.

In his crusade against pancreatic cancer, the racing world marched behind Smullen, willing him on. The goodwill and respect he earned throughout his career helped the fundraising campaign to accrue more than €2.5 million towards important early diagnostic and treatment techniques to combat the disease. In July, Smullen was photographed handing over a €100,000 cheque to St Vincent’s, the Dublin hospital where he underwent his treatment and where he died on Tuesday evening, exactly one year after the memorably emotional scenes on the Curragh for the race named in his honour.

“I’d like to think I achieved a little bit,” he said in 2019 when reflecting on his career as a jockey. “I might not have done anything brilliant, but I think I was consistent the whole way through. I think that’s very important in a stable jockey’s job, and that’s what I loved being, the stable jockey.”

Those words alone point to why he was deeply loved for a modesty so often lacking in today’s world. In shining a light on the achievements of others in his weekly bulletins in these pages throughout last year, his qualities beyond great jockeyship were reflected: as a mentor to the young riders following in his wake and as an eloquent representative for the sport which he loved.

“I’d like to think that I treated people with respect throughout my career and I think that all came back to me in a time of need,” he said.

For Pat Smullen, success went hand-in-hand with humility and gratitude. And when adversity came knocking, he didn’t shut the door and hide away. Instead, he gave it that famous blue-eyed stare and, in confronting the unwelcome visitor we all dread, set an example of courage and fortitude to which we all must aspire.

We wish for the same strength now for Pat’s wife Frances, children Hannah, Paddy and Sarah, mother Mary and brothers Sean, Ger and Brian, to whom we offer our sincerest condolences.

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