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Affirmative Lady Launches AMO Racing’s U.S. Operation

The GII Gulfstream Park Oaks brought a new contestant into the GI Kentucky Oaks picture in victress Affirmative Lady. The connections of the blossoming daughter of Arrogate are newcomers not only to the Oaks trail, but to racing in the U.S. After launching its American stable two years ago, AMO Racing celebrated its first graded stakes win in the States with Affirmative Lady's score on Saturday.

Founded by football agent and businessman Kia Joorabchian, AMO Racing has proven to be a force on the other side of the Atlantic in recent years. Top performers are led by last year's G2 July S. winner Persian Force (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), who is new to stud at Tally-Ho Stud this year, plus multiple Group 1-placed Mojo Star (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) and a host of Group 2 winners including Hello You (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Crypto Force (GB) (Time Test {GB}).

Joorabchian is based in London, but he made sure to be on site at Gulfstream for Affirmative Lady's two-length victory.

“It was probably the best moment that we've had in U.S. racing so far,” he said. “I knew she was not going to be a favorite, but I flew to Miami to see her run. It's a long way for me to go, but in my heart of hearts I knew she would pull off a great performance. She has so much ability and when you watch her work, you can see it. ”

A $210,000 Keeneland September buy, Affirmative Lady was among the first yearlings that AMO Racing purchased in America. Joorabchian remembers finding the filly well because, while he and his agent Robson Aguiar loved her at first sight, not many other buyers were interested.

“When I bought her, everyone was telling me that it wasn't a great buy,” he recalled. “No one really thought much of her other than Robson and me. She looked a little bit backward at the time, but she was very sweet. Her composure and the way she walked was amazing. We knew she wouldn't be early because she wasn't quite on her toes moving the way you would expect a fast, sharp 2-year-old.”

Just as Arrogate didn't truly blossom until later in his career, Joorabchian hypothesized that his new purchase would need plenty of time to develop. He knew he needed to find a patient conditioner and decided that Graham Motion was the perfect candidate.

“Graham really liked her from the word go,” Joorabchian said. “I think it's a credit to Graham. He took something that maybe wasn't the hip, trendy kind of horse. We actually paid a considerable amount for her at the time because Arrogate wasn't popular. I think with the Arrogates, early in their career people thought he was disappointing. But he's proving to be a great stallion and it's really unfortunate that he's not around because she is special.”

Affirmative Lady was winless in two starts at Keeneland last fall, but she touted her potential when she ran a close second to Julia Shining (Curlin) in the GII Demoiselle S. After she ran third in her sophomore debut in the Busada S. at Aqueduct, Motion sent the filly to Gulfstream. She broke her maiden there with first-time blinkers on Feb. 26. before she was sent off at 8-1 in the Gulfstream Park Oaks.

Following the victory, Motion said that the more he watches replays of the race, the more he is impressed with his trainee's performance.

Crispy Cat wins the Texas Glitter S. | Lauren King

“There were moments during the race where I was concerned,” Motion admitted. “I thought between the half-mile pole and the three-eighths pole that she might have been struggling a bit. But I've watched the race a couple of times now and once she got in gear, I thought she really came on and got away from them. She just toughs it out. When I asked Luis about it, he said he was never concerned. He thought he always had the horse, which reassured me. I think she wants to go farther. I believe a mile and a sixteenth is too short for her.”

While the Gulfstream Park Oaks was the biggest victory so far this year for AMO Racing, they've had plenty else to celebrate recently. One week before Affirmative Lady's win, they had their first stakes winner in America with Crispy Cat (GB) (Ardad {Ire}) in the Texas Glitter S. The colt was a Group 2-placed juvenile in England before he transferred to Jorge Delgado for his 3-year-old season.

Also last Saturday, AMO Racing had the winner of the first juvenile contest of the year in Ireland with Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). On the same day, 3-year-old Mischievous Doll (Into Mischief) broke her maiden at Turfway Park for Paulo Lobo.

“It was a fantastic week from Ireland to Miami to Kentucky,” said Joorabchian. “Affirmative Lady was the height of it. We've been very patient with her and it was one of the highlights of my racing career because it was the horse that no one really wanted, but that we loved.”

2023 is already AMO Racing USA's biggest year yet and the operation is just getting started. Joorabchian said that their string here is upwards of three times the size of what it has been the past two years. Nearly 20 horses purchased here are aiming for the starting gate this year and another 20 are shipping in from Europe.

“I'm hoping that within the next few years, we will be pretty balanced between having the same number of horses here as we do in Europe, or maybe even more here,” said Joorabchian.

Asked about the appeal of racing in the U.S., Joorabchian explained that he was drawn to better competition and more prize money.

“U.S. racing is moving upwards,” he said. “The competition is much tougher because you have much bigger prize money. If you do well here, you're really rewarded. If you do well in the U.K., it's more about the value that you're creating in your horses rather than the prize money. I think the competition is much better here as well. You're competing against more people across the spectrum. As an owner like me, I want to compete with more people and be more on level terms and I think the U.S. creates much more competition.”

AMO Racing USA horses are gearing up for 2023 campaigns with trainers all across the country.

Jorge Delgado trains recent stakes winner Crispy Cat, who Joorabchian said is pointing toward the Keeneland race meet and perhaps after that, a trip to Ascot. Delgado's string also includes Olivia Darling (Palace) a 4-year-old filly who ran second in the Minaret S. at Tampa Bay in February; New York Thunder (Nyquist), who won his first two starts at Gulfstream late last year as a juvenile and is now training at Keeneland; and Kingmax (Ire) (Kingman (GB}), a Group 3-placed 4-year-old colt looking to make his U.S. debut in the coming weeks.

Kia Joorabchian | Tattersalls

Paulo Lobo's fleet of AMO horses includes recent maiden winner Mischievous Doll (Into Mischief) and Thunder Love (GB) (Profitable {Ire}), who came to America last year as a 3-year-old and scored a win at Turfway in February. Hurricane J (Nyquist) ran seventh in last year's GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile after two consecutive juvenile wins, but was unplaced in his sophomore debut in February. He now looks to get back to his winning ways in the Lafayette S. at Keeneland on Friday.

“We still have really high hopes for him,” said Joorabchian. “We just think he needed a little more time and I'm hoping this next race will be a lot better.”

Wesley Ward has added a few AMO European exports to his stable with Lady Hollywood (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}), the winner of the G3 Prix d'Arenberg last September who finished a credible fifth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, as well as three-time group winner Go Bears Go (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}).

“We have a really exciting group of horses,” reflected Joorabchian. “Racing is something that I have a passion for and the passion is just getting bigger and bigger. I hope we can achieve some fun things because we're putting a lot behind it.”

Despite many Group 2 and Group 3 wins and quite a few Group 1 placings, AMO Racing is still searching for its first Group/Grade I victory. Their next chance might be on the first Friday in May.

Motion, who will be will be seeking his first Kentucky Oaks win, said that Affirmative Lady came out of last weekend's race in fine shape.

“She got a lot of dirt in her eyes and had a sore eye the next morning, but it looks good now,” he said. “She'll stay in Florida for a few weeks and probably ship to Keeneland around the 17^th and we'll breeze her that weekend. The timing has been great. To be able to give her five more weeks until the Oaks really couldn't be better.”

Joorabchian said he has not yet been to the Kentucky Derby or the Oaks, but added that he is looking forward to this year's experience with Affirmative Lady and hoping for many more trips there in the future.

“When you're racing at the level that we're at now, your dream is to get to the Oak and the Derby, so this is going to be a very special moment,” he said. “We have put this filly through some tough tasks and she has come through in all of them. She has already hit her expectations and everything now is a bonus.”

The post Affirmative Lady Launches AMO Racing’s U.S. Operation appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Tom Lacy: ‘I Looked Forward To Persian Force Running As If I Owned Him Myself’

Tom Lacy received a heartwarming reception at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association Awards last week. And rightly so. A legendary figure in Irish racing, Lacy rode 50 winners on the Flat and found only Arkle and Flyingbolt too good aboard Height Of Fashion in two Irish Grand Nationals.

As a trainer, Lacy sent out hundreds of winners from Rhode, County Offaly, including Ingabelle (GB), who later became a hugely important foundation mare at Ballylinch Stud.

His sons Barry and Tony rode multiple winners for the stable down through the years. It is also here where the late, great Pat Smullen honed his craft, before being crowned Irish champion jockey on nine separate occasions.

While Tony has relocated to America, where he holds the role of Vice President of Sales at Keeneland, Barry remains an integral part of the family breeding operation, and the pair combined to produce last year's leading 2-year-old Persian Force (Ire) (Mehmas {GB}) from €1,200 mare Vida Amorosa (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}).

Persian Force has recently retired to Tally-Ho Stud, an operation that the Lacys have a close association with, and he will stand for €10,000 in his debut season.

Tom and Barry sat down with Brian Sheerin for this week's Starfield Stud-sponsored Q&A where they discussed their rollercoaster year with Persian Force, mating plans for Vida Amorosa and much more.

Brian Sheerin: It was a special night at the ITBA Awards with you taking home the small breeder of the year award for your exploits with Persian Force.

Tom Lacy: Persian Force was a small foal but, every day we went out to him, we could see him thriving. He grew into a lovely foal but he wasn't nearly as nice a foal as his brother [Gubbass (Ire)]. The main reason why we went back to Mehmas was because Gubbass was such a brilliant foal. When you think about it, we brought an unraced mare to an unproven stallion, who never had a runner before, and then went back to him the following year as well. We had two foals by a stallion who never had a runner. It could have been a disaster and, nine times out of 10 it would have been a disaster, but Mehmas has worked big time.

BS: You said before that you broke the golden rule in bringing an unproven mare to an unproven stallion.

TL: Absolutely. She was a well-bred mare, by Lope De Vega, and a fine big mare to match. Persian Force may not have been a big horse but he was full of courage. Jesus, he gave his best every time he ran. He'd put his head down, his ears back and he'd kill himself trying. That's number one for me, a horse who has a bit of fight and courage. But because the first foal was a good foal, I went back to Mehmas. Now, if it had been the other way round, and Persian Force came out first, I wouldn't have gone back. I was talking to Tony [O'Callaghan, of Tally-Ho Stud] who said he reckons Persian Force will end up being 16hh. You have to remember that these are only babies, they are only 2-year-olds when they are retired to stud, so there's plenty of growing in him. He's plenty big enough as he is but they reckon he'll grow, just like Mehmas did when he was retired to stud.

BS: So who owes who a drink at this stage?

Barry Lacy: Let's put it this way, when Mehmas went to stud first, it was the usual craic with everyone rolling in behind the first-season sire. But we didn't use Mehmas the first year he went to stud because we didn't have a mare suitable. It was in his second year at stud where we used him and got Gubbass and his third year when we got Persian Force. So, we used Mehmas for his smallest books of mares. Persian Force was always going to be Mehmas's best 2-year-old last year, because he'd very little else to run for him. He didn't cover huge books during Covid either, so, he could have a quiet year this year but then we're expecting to see him take off again next year and beyond because it's from 2021 when people started sending him the better quality mares on the €25,000 stud fee. So, when you're asking who owes who a drink, I'd say we're in front!

BS: Not too many people are in front of the O'Callaghans!

TL: Sure, we're always arguing. They came over here to look at Persian Force as a foal. The three boys-Tony, Roger and Henry-but they never said a word about the horse, whether he was good, bad or indifferent. They came in here and watched racing for the afternoon and never mentioned the horse any more but then went and paid €75,000 for him at the sales. They were going to buy him no matter what. They gave away the game because, when they say nothing, you know they like them. If they found any hole in Persian Force at all, you could be sure they'd have made a big thing about it! It was the same with Gubbass. They came over to look at him and never said a word, went to the sales and bought him as well. They are great men.

BS: Between Gubbass and Persian Force, you have had a lot of fun over the past few years.

BL: I'd say that one of the biggest kicks we have gotten in racing was watching Gubbass winning the Super Sprint S. at Haydock. He was in the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, which took place at Newmarket because of Covid. I asked Roger [O'Callaghan] if we could sell him under the Tally-Ho banner and he said it was no problem if I went over and helped them out at the sale. The morning that we're loading up Gubbass to bring him over for the sale, a call comes through to say that Pat Smullen has sadly passed away. Pat had worked here for years and is obviously a local hero. Roger told me that, if I couldn't go to the sale, he would understand completely. I gave Roger my word that I'd help him out at the sale and it's not like I could go to the funeral in any case because of Covid so we continued with the plan. We thought he was a 50 grand yearling all day long but he only made 26 or 27 grand at the sale. We always felt that he was a racehorse so when he won first time up and then went on to the Super Sprint, we were delighted. The other thing is, we are a small operation and if we approached one of the bigger outfits to do a foal share, they'd just tell us to go away and not be annoying them. So what do you do? We can't go spending 30 or 40 grand on a proven sire as we had an unproven mare at the time and, the only thing we had to go by on the pedigree is that her half-sister Queen Of Power had an Acclamation colt who made €130,000 as a foal. He ended up being a good horse for Charlie Hills and is probably a major reason why we went to a son of Acclamation (GB) in Mehmas with Vida Amorosa (Ire).

BS: It's often the case that a mare catches fire just when she's gone too old. You don't have that problem with Vida Amorosa.

BL: She's just turned nine and is in foal to Starman (GB). It was this time last year when we were over in Tally-Ho and Roger said to me, 'Bar, this 2-year-old [Persian Force] could be the real deal.' I said, 'great, let's send the mare back to Mehmas.' He says, 'No, you won't, you'll go to Starman.' You hear it time and time again, that this horse is good and that horse is good, but you want to see them go and prove it. I thought, fine, let Persian Force prove he's a good one and, if he is as good as everyone says he is, then we can always go to Mehmas the following year.

BS: We're busy putting together our mating plans pieces in TDN, so what plans have ye made on that front?

BL: The bottom line is, if Vida Amorosa goes in foal to Mehmas, whether she has a filly or a colt, it doesn't matter. In actual fact, the filly is probably worth as much if not more to us. It's the logical choice. If you don't go to Mehmas, where do you go?

TL: As I said to Barry, you could go to Acclamation, the sire of Mehmas. It's the same line. He's had a great run as a sire.

BS: How many mares do you have to make mating plans for?

BL: We've only got two mares to foal this year, the smallest bunch we've ever had. We'd a lovely Danehill Dancer (Ire) mare, whose first foal ended up being Different Gravey (Ire) for Nicky Henderson, but she's retired now. She looked like she was going to be a very good National Hunt broodmare at one stage but it was a total disaster. We bought a lovely Australia (GB) mare last year but she died foaling. That's why we've the lowest number of mares we've ever had between retiring mares and just a bit of bad luck.

TL: Some of them just weren't up to scratch. They were only ordinary and you don't want to be breeding ordinary mares. If they're not good, they're a waste of time.

BS: Getting back to the awards night, John O'Connor of Ballylinch Stud presented you with your trophy, which is quite significant given he purchased Ingabelle off you. Of course, Ingabelle has gone on to be an important foundation mare at Ballylinch.

TL: We bred Ingabelle and sold a half share in her before she ever hit the racecourse but, when her racing career was over, her owners didn't have any interest in breeding from her so we sold her. If we didn't sell the half-share to begin with, we'd never have sold her ourselves, but we couldn't hang on to her. I saw Ballylinch put up a lovely picture congratulating me on the award on social media the other day and they mentioned Ingabelle and how she became an important foundation mare for them. We go back a good few years.

BL: She was a very significant filly. I used to ride her out every morning before school. She was a great barometer for me. For years afterwards, you'd ride something and you could say, 'yea, that's nice, but it's no Ingabelle.' I was very lucky that I was able to sit up on something so good at a young age. It's like sitting into a good car. The good horses are very hard to find and the problem is, for a place like this, once you stumble across one, you have to sell to keep the whole thing going. They are hard to hang on to. Dad would have had 10 people working here through the '70s to the '90s. That's lots of wages and lots of owners to look after. There were 40 or 50 horses riding out here every morning for over 30 years.

TL: We had some great times. It's a great lifestyle and you get a great kick out of when things go well.

BS: When did you retire?

BL: You haven't had your trainers' licence for over 10 years now, Dad.

TL: Staff was the biggest problem. It was impossible to get staff. If you don't have good riders, you're at nothing, because a bad rider would ruin a good horse. You need good lads riding out.

BL: We had some great people working here and, during the mid-'90s, Pat Smullen was our stable jockey. Every lad in his 60s or 70s around here, they either worked here or in the bog during the summer at one stage in their lives.

BS: Do you miss the training, Tom?

TL: You miss good horses. I remember I needed a companion for Ingabelle so I went and bought a horse for 1,200 pounds at the sales. He turned out to be Welsh Bard and he was as good as Ingabelle. He was a late foal, which is why we got him cheap, but he won a 2-year-old race in May at Down Royal. I can remember Declan Gillespie rode him to win at Down Royal and, when he got down off him, he said, 'how good is Ingabelle!' He'd been riding the two of them work so he knew exactly what we had.

BL: That was the Monday and Ingabelle was running at Tipperary on the Thursday. I can remember looking up at the boards when I was leading her around the parade ring and she was 14-1. By the time they got down to the start, she was the 5-2 favourite. She bolted up by five lengths. Days like that were brilliant.

BS: Could you sum up your emotion for being recognised by your peers at the ITBA Awards?

TL: Honest to God, no. None, that's the truth now. You work hard and enjoy the whole year and I looked forward to him running the very same as if I owned him myself. I looked forward so much to seeing him run. We went over to see him win at Newbury and got to speak to Richard Hannon before the race. He told us to come into the winner's enclosure three hours before the race, unbelievably cocky.He knew he had a good horse. It's very difficult to get a good mare, very difficult. Go to the sales and try and buy a good mare, the majority of them are no good and, the ones you want, you can't buy them.

BL: The dam sire is hugely important. We'd been on the lookout for a Lope De Vega mare for years before we bought Vida Amorosa.

BS: Has there been many inquiries about the mare?

BL: There have been enquiries but no real offers.

TL: A few people rang to see if we were interested in selling her but we're not. If you were to sell a mare like that, it would be very easy to flutter away the money and you'd have nothing to show for it, whereas you'd find it hard to find one as good again. Never say never, but we're not thinking of selling her.

BS: Have you got a mare to send Persian Force this year?

BL: There's a Red Clubs (Ire) mare out there called Style (Ire). Her son, Pagan (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), won twice for William Haggas and is doing well out in Saudi Arabia now. She could go to Persian Force.

BS: You touched on Pat Smullen, Rhode's most famous son, earlier. You gave him his first winner and I'm sure you've many fond memories of him.

TL: He used to come up here every Saturday and Sunday and go racing pony racing on the Sundays as well. He'd get a fiver a ride and ended up being a champion pony race rider. When he was old enough, I brought him up to the Turf Club to get his licence. I remember that they were slow about giving him his licence because pony racing was against the rules but, anyway, after his first or second race riding for me, I knew he was good. He rode like a good jockey from an early stage. After he rode in two or three races for us, he rode everything for us, because we felt even back then that he was as good if not better than the rest of the other jockeys. And he was. He never rode a bad race for us. You could never blame the jockey when Pat rode for you.

BL: He was here about two years before he had his first winner on the track which was May 1993. I remember going up to Dundalk with Pat where he rode one for us to finish fourth. He was beaten three short heads, it was a blanket finish, but Mick Kinane wouldn't have rode our horse any better. You often see the ride of the month going to a winning ride but this ride, to finish fourth, was as good a ride as there was. I remember coming down off the stand and thinking that Pat Smullen was brilliant. He was claiming seven pounds but he was a stone ahead of any other apprentice out there.

TL: He was heavy as a claimer and he used to live in the sauna here. I remember thinking he would be a good bet to be champion jockey. I would have got great odds.

BL: There was no Curragh messing with Pat. His parents kept his feet on the ground and he was champion apprentice here twice. He went from here to John Oxx's and then, after a year there, went riding for Dermot Weld.

TL: I used to tell him to communicate what he thought after a race and he was brilliant at it. Tell the trainer, truly, this fella wants further or whatever. That's what you're being paid for. Don't just jump down. Tell them exactly what you think.

BL: That's what Pat was renowned for. He was able to explain and he understood how to talk to trainers and owners. That's why they loved him.

BS: Rhode has punched above its sporting weight for years with Pat flying the flag for the village and then last year La Petite Coco (Ire), Minzaal (Ire) and Persian Force, all of whom were bred in the area, recording major successes on the track. You must be proud of the village.

TL: There's three group winners from a five-mile radius. There's four stud farms in the area, with Frances Smullen there as well, and it's only a matter of time before she produces a real good one.

BS: There's plenty more to look forward to with Vida Amorosa. Has there been any reports on her Inns Of Court (Ire) 2-year-old?

BL: He was bought by Amo Racing. He was a lovely horse. Physically, he was probably the nicest foal out of the mare but he won't be as precocious as the other lads.

TL: He won't be early, he'll take a bit of time.

BL: He looks as though he'll be at his best at three. Even at the Orby, he looked a little leggy.

BS: It's obvious that you both have a great relationship with the O'Callaghans.

BL: They're brilliant. A little horse we bred, Roundabout Magic (Ire) won a little race at Lingfield on New Year's Eve a couple of years ago. He is only a pony and Hollie Doyle looked big on him. Anyway, he hadn't crossed the line five minutes and Tony rings, asking if he had a half-brother. 'He does,' says I, 'but he's by Morpheus.' 'Sure I'll come down and have a look at him,' Tony says. On he comes, to look at this Morpheus yearling. We had gelded him because Morpheus was a complete disaster and we were half thinking of sending this lad to the store sales. But Tony came looking at this lad with a view towards breezing him after his half-brother won a little Class 6 at Lingfield. They didn't buy him because we gelded him, but that's how game he is, he'd come here on New Year's Eve to look at buying a little Morpheus of ours to breeze. They're brilliant people to work with.

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‘We Back Them Up To The Hilt’: The O’Callaghans on Making Stallions

It is not exactly a state secret that the team at Tally-Ho Stud, to use that old phrase, prefer their horses to do the talking. This could be misconstrued as a lack of friendliness but if you talk to other members of the bloodstock community about Tony and Anne O'Callaghan and their sons Roger and Henry, you will almost certainly hear variations of the phrase “lovely people”.

Indeed, within the family kitchen at the stone farmhouse just a short stretch up from the stallion yard a warm welcome is issued from all four members of the immediate family. Anne has a stroganoff ready for lunch and takes her place at the head of the table as if to referee the debate. But there's no need for that.

“Well done for getting into the engine room,” she says with a laugh. In a week or so, the covering shed, with its full schedule of mares visiting the farm's seven stallions, could perhaps be judged to be the engine room, but the Tally-Ho kitchen, fittingly bedecked with hunting scenes, is clearly where all the important decisions are made.

As Tony talks, directly behind him sit two large monitors with grids of images showing CCTV footage of the foaling boxes and the farm. Twenty-five foals were on the ground by Jan. 27, almost one a day, and that rate will only pick up as the season progresses.

To an extent, Tally-Ho Stud is known now as a commercially successful stallion operation. But that is only one facet of the place. The O'Callaghans' sizeable broodmare band of course plays an important part in supporting those stallions, and the two combined have been responsible in creating some notable names, with the farm having been on a particular roll in recent years.

Group 1 winners Campanelle (Ire), Fairyland (Ire), The Platinum Queen (Ire), Perfect Power (Ire) and Ebro River (Ire) are backed up by Malavath (Ire), Knight (Ire), Kessaar (Ire), Ardad (Ire), Lusail (Ire), and Caturra (Ire). All bar one of those named are by the Tally-Ho stallions Kodiac (GB), Mehmas (Ire), Cotai Glory (GB), and Galileo Gold (GB), though the latter has just moved to Haras de Bouquetot for this season. The exception in the list is Perfect Power, who is by Overbury Stud's Ardad, but as his sire was bred at Tally-Ho, the bragging rights remain strong.

You won't hear a lot of bragging in this corner of Co Westmeath, however. As the conversation begins, naturally the first subject is Kodiac, the de facto king of Tally-Ho. Of his arrival at the stud some 17 years ago, Tony reflects, “I'd say we've been lucky. Then we kind of followed Danehill big time. And I suppose that was a result of Kodiac coming in.”

While Roger adds sagely, “And we've learned from our mistakes.”

Their selection of stallions, Tony says, is “A gut feeling as much as anything. We always like the 2-year-olds. The 2-year-olds only have to compete against themselves, which makes it easier.”

Recruiting the non-stakes winning but well-bred Kodiac in the year his half-brother Invincible Spirit made a lighting start with his first 2-year-old runners, was, in hindsight, an easy decision.

“When he came out the door, we liked him straight away. I'll always remember that,” says Roger, recalling a visit to John Dunlop's Arundel stable.

“Big arse on him, and square,” adds Tony.

“He'd shown nice form. He was competing in very good races. He'd only been beaten two lengths in a Group 1 [Prix Maurice de Gheest]. We paid what they asked for him on the day. We didn't haggle one bit; we just said we'd take him. And John Dunlop was very disappointed at the time because he wanted another year to compete in Group 1s.”

There follows a brief debate as to the number of 2-year-old winners Kodiac had in one year when setting a new world record. The answer is 61, in 2017, seven more than Deep Impact (Jpn) notched in that same year. Kodiac's reputation has been hewn by his tendency to produce precocious offspring, and Anne points to another important factor.

“His temperament,” she says. “And the fact that the trainers hooked onto him very early on, and the breeze-up boys. [His stock] were so biddable, and winning, and wanted to give that extra inch.”

Presently, at least 10 sons of Kodiac are at stud around the world, one as far afield as Maryland, USA, another right on the doorstep in the homebred Kessaar, who is now up to 25 winners as his first crop of runners turn three.

Kodiac has had an emphatic influence on Tally-Ho Stud. “He built most of this,” says Roger, wafting his arms around the yard during an earlier stallion parade. At 22, he is the venerable veteran of the team, with another upwardly mobile stallion now snapping at his heels. It has been hard to ignore Mehmas (Ire), who set his own record when becoming the most prolific European first-season sire with 55 winners in 2020, a tally that puts him only behind Kodiac as the most successful sire of juveniles.

“Incredible,” is how Tony describes the son of Acclamation (GB), a graduate of the breeze-up system which plays such an important role in spruiking young stallions, and sometimes the opposite.

“The breeze-up boys do all the promoting,” says Anne. “And the jungle drums do most of the talking for you. I mean, if the Chinese whispers are good, you don't need to say any more.”

Her husband is quick to remind us that for every successful stallion, there are plenty that don't work out. “They hated Bushranger,” he states. “And we suffered for it. His career ended by 15 April. Ten of them had run, eight of them had started favourite, and not one finished in the first three. He covered mares for the rest of the season and he didn't get one the following year. Not one mare. It's like you turned off the tap.”

We back the stock in the sales, too. We go and look at them often. If we like them any bit at all, we try and buy them. Sometimes too much. But the heart is stupid

As one who has been around horses all his life, he takes a fatalistic view to the inevitability that not every stallion that walks through the gate will end up being held in the same regard as Kodiac. Plenty will end up quietly moving on. Some, sadly, such as Danetime (Ire), Red Clubs (Ire) and Society Rock (Ire), will die young.

“If they haven't enough mobility, you have to accept it,” says Tony. “You just have to agree, and then you have to look at the next three years' work out in the field. You go to the sales and people just walk past the door. We had it with Morpheus and with Bushranger. That's the hardest part.”

He adds, “But we like to back them. Oh, we back them up to the hilt until they…”

“Kick us in the arse,” interjects Roger.

Tony continues, “We back the stock in the sales, too. We go and look at them often. If we like them any bit at all, we try and buy them. Sometimes too much. But the heart is stupid.”

Often enough, the O'Callaghans will find themselves in competition either at the sales or in the running to buy a stallion with members of their own family. Tony's brother Gay and his wife Annette run another highly successful stallion business at Yeomanstown Stud with their sons David and Robert, with two more sons, Peter and Guy, at the helm, respectively, of Woods Edge Farm in Kentucky and Ireland's Grangemore Stud. Another two of Tony's brothers, Noel and Pat, are also successful breeders.

Anne, meanwhile, brings a classy distaff lineage to the operation. Her late father Tom Magnier owned Grange Stud, home to the great National Hunt sire Cottage (Ire), and her mother Evie Stockwell was a committed breeder in her own right until her passing last September. Most readers of this publication will be aware of the significant role Anne's brother John Magnier has played within the business for many years.

“We go into the sales and we bid away,” says Tony in his matter-of-fact manner. “We could be bidding against brothers. There's no doubt about it, in-laws and brothers are always sure to be the opposition.”

The commercial feel of the stallion roster, which also includes the promising Cotai Glory, Inns Of Court (Ire), who is about to have his first runners, Starman (GB) with first foals, and new arrival Persian Force (Ire), is largely matched by the profile of the broodmare band.

Tony explains the necessity of this situation. “Look, the Classics are all basically between Coolmore, Juddmonte, Darley, Shadwell, the Aga Khan, and a few others. It's very hard to compete. We just step outside that and work away grand.”

He adds of his farm, which was the birthplace of the 1972 Prix du Jockey Club winner Hard To Beat (Ire) among others, “The Classic winners were bred in Tally-Ho before we got it. There could've been 60 mares here back in the '50s or '60s. There was, I think, three or four Leger winners bred here, Guineas winners, 1000, 2000. I don't know if there was the Derby winner, but there was a whole heap of good horses bred here.”

It is a situation that persists.

“We just keep reinvesting in mares, trying to get better mares. That's all there is. Some work, and some don't,” says Anne modestly. She is considered to have a sixth sense when it comes to the mares being about to foal and is, like her husband and sons, fully immersed in every aspect of the business.

“It's all hands to the pump, should it be needed,” she adds.

Roger illustrates the point with a recent anecdote. He says, “A mare foaled the night before last, and the foal was coming backwards. So there was Mum, Dad, Henry, myself, my wife, and the night girl, and the vet. We were all there. We got it out, but we were all involved.”

His mother continues, “It's all about a team, it's not just one person. It's a team effort and we try and weave our way through.”

Henry, widely known as 'the quiet one' but very much worth listening to, temporarily escaped that team. Depending on which of his parents you listen to, he did and didn't enjoy his seven-year stint in the world of banking and insolvency.

“He didn't like it one bit,” says Tony, while Anne counters, “It was interesting,” and Roger chimes in with, “He keeps an eye on us now.”

Henry himself says, “Ah, sure, I didn't mind it either.” But it is easy to see that he is happy to be back among the fold.

The team ethos referenced by Anne starts with the matings.

“There'd be a debate at the stocks for about 10 seconds,” Roger says.

Instinct, it would seem, rules over scholarly research, but then information gleaned from decades of working hands-on with the stock leads to its own special brand of knowledge; the kind which can't be read in books.

“We try and match what we think would be right,” notes Tony. “But we wouldn't spend two days discussing it now.”

Anne, as intuitive as any member of the team, adds, “It's like when you see a horse coming out of the stable, it's your first impression really. And if it doesn't float your boat…And it's the same with the coverings, they make up their mind that they're going to cover it with X.”

Roger admits that from time to time disagreements can occur, but one senses they are quickly dissipated.

His mother, in her calm way, adds, “When you still have to work together, and we're so involved, it's up to all of us to give a little bit, take a little bit.”

And Henry agrees. “Ultimately, we only want what's best and we treat every horse like it's our own, so it's only coming from a good place.”

They all admit that the horse business – from mares, to foals, yearlings, breezers, and stallions – is their sole focus.

“It's all we do,” says Tony.

Fortunately, they do it rather well. Last year Anne joined her brother in the ITBA Hall of Fame when she was inducted alongside her husband. It was an award widely applauded by those who do business with Tally-Ho Stud, year in, and year out.

“Well, we like breeding winners, sure, we like that,” says Tony, still looking a little embarrassed at such public recognition.

Anne adds, “It was most unexpected. It was a good feeling, and it makes you realise that the effort you put in has been worth it. To get a proper winner, or even the award. But as I said it was most unexpected. It's nice to be acknowledged by your peers, though, isn't it?”

It is almost certainly not the last time that the name Tally-Ho Stud will be listed among award winners, especially with a burgeoning roster of young stallions to complement the older guard, along with well-stocked fields of mares. However successful Mehmas or any of those following through become though, it will be hard to topple Kodiac in the family's affections.

“He'll always be king,” says Tony. “He would be our king, anyway. We'll be forever grateful.”

The post ‘We Back Them Up To The Hilt’: The O’Callaghans on Making Stallions appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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This Side Up: A Game of Accident and Design

We can harness Thoroughbreds to our best and worst, to our altruism or avarice–but thankfully we will never alter the essential, inherent wonder of the breed, nor maintain the illusion that we are ever truly in control of its destiny.

There's a genuine possibility, this weekend, that a German colt could elevate himself to the top of the global sophomore crop by winning the G1 Japan Cup. Yet Tünnes (Ger) (Guiliani {Ire}) was a wholly inadvertent acquisition at the Baden-Baden yearling sales, his purchaser having dropped out at €20,000 only to discover that he had persevered, unwittingly, to the fall of the hammer at €38,000, by the gesticulations accompanying his cell phone conversation.

You could seek no better example of the way horses confound our best-laid calculations, whether for good or ill. In this game, your bad luck will frequently turn out to be good luck; and vice versa. And that defining mystery will always abide, no matter how (or with what motives) we manipulate the nobility of the equine spirit.

Now, as it happens, this same colt also offers to substantiate the mirage of coherence so teasingly within reach of those of us who owe our livelihoods to this business. While his breeder owns but a single mare, she has famously also produced an Arc winner; while Tünnes is inbred as close as 3×3 to a half-sister to Urban Sea (Miswaki) herself.

On one level, then, here's a horse that can make sense of the great puzzle. We can be like the fellow who notoriously telegraphed from the casino at Monte Carlo: “System working well, send more money.”

Yet while this particular family belongs to perhaps the most precious seam of the entire European gene pool, still the market persists not only in undervaluing the kind of ore preserved by the strictures on German breeding, but in prizing its shallow opposites.

The German guarantee of soundness and stamina, through stallions that stand consecutive seasons of training without medication, has a moral equivalence with the Derby as a historic platform for the kind of sires we should be using. This week, the most inspired a commercial breeder of all reiterated his faith in Epsom as “the complete test of the horse”. John Magnier affirmed that “a horse has to have everything to win” there: speed, stamina, soundness, courage and temperament.

Persian Force training at Keeneland earlier this month | Coady

Yet this was also the week when a relative novice to the game showed that he has quickly grasped the contrasting criteria of the commercial market, in Britain and Ireland at any rate, by retiring Persian Force (Ire) to stud as a 2-year-old. This colt, last seen finishing fourth at the Breeders' Cup, duly emulates his own sire Mehmas (Ire), who was similarly deemed to have proved everything necessary as a fast and precocious juvenile.

As I've often stressed, the Classic Thoroughbred actually retains far more commercial respect in the United States, where the ultimate objective is not speed alone but the robustness (and indeed stamina) to carry it through a second turn on the first Saturday in May.

This has never adequately penetrated the ignorance of today's European horsemen. But then why should Americans expect one prejudice to be renounced, while some of them remain so stubborn in reinforcing others? Their resistance to HISA, for instance, seems to have been brazenly coupled in the courtroom “wagering”, so to speak, with a quite extraneous ideological agenda.

Another way in which American horsemen seem determined to substantiate prejudice against their own product is in the commercial market's disdain for turf. For all the signs of progress here–in the purses at Kentucky Downs, for example, and growing investment at European auctions–the disrepair of some premier American tracks feels thoroughly discouraging. Evidently we can expect zero grass racing at Fair Grounds before Christmas, while the “weeds” at Churchill are equal to just one of the dozen races scheduled Saturday.

It's a fascinating card, all the same, exclusively contested by juveniles. After revisiting the legacy of Leslie's Lady in this space last week, it's poignant to see her final foal (by Kantharos: some distinction, dude!) make her debut in the fourth, while the final race features a seven-figure sibling to Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro) by her sire's son Bolt d'Oro.

Instant Coffee on debut Sept. 3 at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

That lad, of course, will treasure every available cent in what remains a remarkable race for the freshman sires' championship. The GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. could prove decisive, with two of the three protagonists prominently represented: Good Magic by Curly Jack, and Bolt d'Oro by Instant Coffee.

The road to the Kentucky Derby makes few other detours through its host track, and we saw with Rich Strike (Keen Ice) how important a proven relish for the surface can be. The first horse to win both this race and the Derby (1927-28) was Reigh Count, who was sent over the water as a 4-year-old to win the Coronation Cup over the Derby course, and run second in the Ascot Gold Cup over 2 1/2 miles. (What was I was just saying about how the Europeans could use some dirt stamina?!)

With Count Fleet as his principal heir, Reigh Count proved a precious source of toughness and durability in the breed. However, the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby after a reconnaissance in this race at two, when finishing third, had been Behave Yourself seven years previously. It is said that Colonel Bradley eventually donated him as a cavalry sire, because he did not wish to contaminate the breed by replicating such an inferior specimen.

So there you have it. Even if horses will always remain agents of chaos, they will also tell us plenty about the kind of people who utilize their generosity–either for the good of the breed, as was contrastingly the case with both Reigh Count and Behave Yourself, or as a vehicle for their own cynicism or self-interest.

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