The record price for a thoroughbred at auction was shattered in February 2006 at Calder in Florida when Irish vet Demi O'Byrne, bidding for a syndicate from Coolmore Stud, paid $16.1 million for a two-year-old colt by Forestry. The youngster was named The Green Monkey and, as with the pre viosu record holder Seattle Dancer, the Maktoum family of Dubai were underbidders to John Magnier's syndicate. Not much had changed, it seemed, during the intervening period.
Coolmore had continued to grow in scale, although these days it has a rival bidding to develop a global stallion operation, in the shape of Sheikh Mohammed's Darley.
And while a now 61-year-old John Magnier is still very much at Coolmore's helm - indeed he is now proprietor of the vast stud operation as well as the Ballydoyle training stables - most of the other one-time key players have either taken a back seat or passed away. Robert Sangster, has lost a courageous fight against cancer, while Vincent O'Brien spends much of his time in Australia. Another, unrelated O'Brien, Aidan - a native of Wexford who had shown exceptional skill initially training jumpers - was installed by Magnier at Ballydoyle following his namesake's retirement in 1994.
By the mid 1980s, Magnier and his team were less conspicuous in the sale ring. Sangster raced mainly home-breds and his interests at Coolmore were much reduced by the time of his death. New stallions came from other sources. Danehill was an inspired purchase from Prince Khalid Abdullah for a mere 4 million in 1989, while others were bought from owners such as Lord Howard de Walden, one-time Coolmore partner Stavros Niarchos, Daniel Wildenstein and Lord Weinstock.
In 1995 the London-born, Monaco-based Michael Tabor, a well-known rails bookmaker who had some spare capital after selling his Arthur Prince betting-shop chain, joined the Coolmore syndicate, opening a new chapter in the studs history. Tabor had been holidaying in Barbados and met Magnier and former Coolmore vet Demi O'Byrne, the man who had travelled with Nijinsky when he won the 1970 Triple Crown. O'Byrne, a native of Co Waterford from another famous family of horsemen, purchased American Classic contender Thunder Gulch privately for Tabor in 1995 and the colt went on to win both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes that year.
With his new partner Tabor, Magnier once more became a major player at the top yearling sales. In 1995, they bought three of the top four lots at Keenelands July Sale and a Sadler's Wells colt who jointly topped Tattersalls' Houghton Sale at 600,000gns. The latter colt was named Entrepreneur and marked the arrival of Magnier in a role he had previously not publicised - as a major racehorse owner - when winning the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1997.
In the same year, Aidan O'Brien had his first Classic success, winning the Irish 2000 Guineas and Irish Derby with Desert King, also owned by the Tabor/Magnier partnership. Those early victories were the start of a flood of major winners sporting either Tabor's blue and orange silks or the plain dark blue colours of Magnier's wife Sue. Epsom Derby heroes Galileo and High Chaparral, champions and Classic winners such as Giant's Causeway, Montjeu, Rock Of Gibraltar, Hurricane Run, Stravinsky, Fasliyev, Hawk Wing, Johannesburg, Milan, Brian Boru, Dylan Thomas, Duke Of Marmalade and Footstepsinthesand mean that Coolmore is once again producing its own stallions, while talented fillies such as Imagine, Shahtoush, Peeping Fawn and Virginia Waters have enhanced an already blue-blooded broodmare band.
Derrick Smith has joined forces with Magnier and Tabor in purchases from the 2004 and 2005 yearling sales, as well as in the $16.1 million breeze-up colt. An old friend of Tabor's who at one time manned Ladbrokes' racecourse pitches, Smith is now based in Barbados where he, along with his two partners, has amassed a fortune from trading in currencies. Indeed, these days, for Magnier, Coolmore is just one of many business enterprises. With partners such as top jumps owner JP McManus, Smith, Dublin financier Dermot Desmond and Horseracing Ireland chairman Denis Brosnan, he has a myriad other interests.
He owned a 28.7 per cent stake in Manchester United football club with JP McManus before selling to American tycoon Malcolm Glazer. The pair alsohold investments in the Barchester chain of nursing homes, a property company that owns Unilever House in London, leisure clubs, including the Chelsea Harbour Club, and the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados.
Coolmore itself is far more than the couple of hundred acres taken over by Magnier in 1975. The stud has absorbed neighbouring to bring the acreage into the thousands, including also Ballydoyle and the Longfield Stud training establishment occupied by Magnier's trainer son-in-law David Wachman.
Two innovations pioneered by Magnier, at first frowned upon by traditionalists and now the industry norm, were the covering of huge books of mares and shuttling stallions to the southern hemisphere often to double their annual earning potential. Along with one of America's most-profitable stallion stations, Ashford Stud in Kentucky, Coolmore also runs one of the southern hemisphere's most prestigious farms in Australia's Hunter Valley.
As well as its own flagship stallions, including Sadler's Wells, Giant's Causeway and Montjeu, Coolmore has breeding rights and shares in many other top sires, including Storm Cat and Kingmambo. Since Caerleon lifted the British and Irish sires' championship in 1988, the title has only once failed to go to Coolmore. Caerleon scored again in 1991, Sadler's Wells took 14 titles, while Danehill posthumously scored in 2005.
The key personnel at Coolmore have changed. Gay O'Callaghan, whose brother Tony is married to John Magnier's sister, left to become one of the most successful modern-day pinhookers, as well as running his own stallion farm at Morristown Lattin Stud. The staff line-up, built up over two decades, however, remains the envy of all its rivals.
General manager Christy Grassick is a supreme diplomat from a famous racing family, while Magnier's right-hand man Paul Shanahan, a cousin of Tabor's adviser Demi O'Byrne, worked his way through the farm's ranks. Vetinarian John Halley, a partner of O'Byrnes, attends all the major Ballydoyle runners, and the stud employs two first-class financial brains in Eddie Irwin and Clem Murphy. The crucial marketing element is handled by the Fethard-based Primus Advertising agency run by Richard Henry.
Other advisers to Coolmore include famed horseman Timmy Hyde, a successful pinhooker in partnership with Shanahan, while a large number of Magnier's mares are owned in partnership with his old school friend David Nagle at his Barronstown Stud in Co Wicklow. There will surely be many more chapters in the Coolmore, and some will undoubtedly bring about a feeling of deja vu. But Magnier can look back with satisfaction that his vision of producing future stallions has been more successful than perhaps he could ever have hoped.
Coolmore had continued to grow in scale, although these days it has a rival bidding to develop a global stallion operation, in the shape of Sheikh Mohammed's Darley.
And while a now 61-year-old John Magnier is still very much at Coolmore's helm - indeed he is now proprietor of the vast stud operation as well as the Ballydoyle training stables - most of the other one-time key players have either taken a back seat or passed away. Robert Sangster, has lost a courageous fight against cancer, while Vincent O'Brien spends much of his time in Australia. Another, unrelated O'Brien, Aidan - a native of Wexford who had shown exceptional skill initially training jumpers - was installed by Magnier at Ballydoyle following his namesake's retirement in 1994.
By the mid 1980s, Magnier and his team were less conspicuous in the sale ring. Sangster raced mainly home-breds and his interests at Coolmore were much reduced by the time of his death. New stallions came from other sources. Danehill was an inspired purchase from Prince Khalid Abdullah for a mere 4 million in 1989, while others were bought from owners such as Lord Howard de Walden, one-time Coolmore partner Stavros Niarchos, Daniel Wildenstein and Lord Weinstock.
In 1995 the London-born, Monaco-based Michael Tabor, a well-known rails bookmaker who had some spare capital after selling his Arthur Prince betting-shop chain, joined the Coolmore syndicate, opening a new chapter in the studs history. Tabor had been holidaying in Barbados and met Magnier and former Coolmore vet Demi O'Byrne, the man who had travelled with Nijinsky when he won the 1970 Triple Crown. O'Byrne, a native of Co Waterford from another famous family of horsemen, purchased American Classic contender Thunder Gulch privately for Tabor in 1995 and the colt went on to win both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes that year.
With his new partner Tabor, Magnier once more became a major player at the top yearling sales. In 1995, they bought three of the top four lots at Keenelands July Sale and a Sadler's Wells colt who jointly topped Tattersalls' Houghton Sale at 600,000gns. The latter colt was named Entrepreneur and marked the arrival of Magnier in a role he had previously not publicised - as a major racehorse owner - when winning the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1997.
In the same year, Aidan O'Brien had his first Classic success, winning the Irish 2000 Guineas and Irish Derby with Desert King, also owned by the Tabor/Magnier partnership. Those early victories were the start of a flood of major winners sporting either Tabor's blue and orange silks or the plain dark blue colours of Magnier's wife Sue. Epsom Derby heroes Galileo and High Chaparral, champions and Classic winners such as Giant's Causeway, Montjeu, Rock Of Gibraltar, Hurricane Run, Stravinsky, Fasliyev, Hawk Wing, Johannesburg, Milan, Brian Boru, Dylan Thomas, Duke Of Marmalade and Footstepsinthesand mean that Coolmore is once again producing its own stallions, while talented fillies such as Imagine, Shahtoush, Peeping Fawn and Virginia Waters have enhanced an already blue-blooded broodmare band.
Derrick Smith has joined forces with Magnier and Tabor in purchases from the 2004 and 2005 yearling sales, as well as in the $16.1 million breeze-up colt. An old friend of Tabor's who at one time manned Ladbrokes' racecourse pitches, Smith is now based in Barbados where he, along with his two partners, has amassed a fortune from trading in currencies. Indeed, these days, for Magnier, Coolmore is just one of many business enterprises. With partners such as top jumps owner JP McManus, Smith, Dublin financier Dermot Desmond and Horseracing Ireland chairman Denis Brosnan, he has a myriad other interests.
He owned a 28.7 per cent stake in Manchester United football club with JP McManus before selling to American tycoon Malcolm Glazer. The pair alsohold investments in the Barchester chain of nursing homes, a property company that owns Unilever House in London, leisure clubs, including the Chelsea Harbour Club, and the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados.
Coolmore itself is far more than the couple of hundred acres taken over by Magnier in 1975. The stud has absorbed neighbouring to bring the acreage into the thousands, including also Ballydoyle and the Longfield Stud training establishment occupied by Magnier's trainer son-in-law David Wachman.
Two innovations pioneered by Magnier, at first frowned upon by traditionalists and now the industry norm, were the covering of huge books of mares and shuttling stallions to the southern hemisphere often to double their annual earning potential. Along with one of America's most-profitable stallion stations, Ashford Stud in Kentucky, Coolmore also runs one of the southern hemisphere's most prestigious farms in Australia's Hunter Valley.
As well as its own flagship stallions, including Sadler's Wells, Giant's Causeway and Montjeu, Coolmore has breeding rights and shares in many other top sires, including Storm Cat and Kingmambo. Since Caerleon lifted the British and Irish sires' championship in 1988, the title has only once failed to go to Coolmore. Caerleon scored again in 1991, Sadler's Wells took 14 titles, while Danehill posthumously scored in 2005.
The key personnel at Coolmore have changed. Gay O'Callaghan, whose brother Tony is married to John Magnier's sister, left to become one of the most successful modern-day pinhookers, as well as running his own stallion farm at Morristown Lattin Stud. The staff line-up, built up over two decades, however, remains the envy of all its rivals.
General manager Christy Grassick is a supreme diplomat from a famous racing family, while Magnier's right-hand man Paul Shanahan, a cousin of Tabor's adviser Demi O'Byrne, worked his way through the farm's ranks. Vetinarian John Halley, a partner of O'Byrnes, attends all the major Ballydoyle runners, and the stud employs two first-class financial brains in Eddie Irwin and Clem Murphy. The crucial marketing element is handled by the Fethard-based Primus Advertising agency run by Richard Henry.
Other advisers to Coolmore include famed horseman Timmy Hyde, a successful pinhooker in partnership with Shanahan, while a large number of Magnier's mares are owned in partnership with his old school friend David Nagle at his Barronstown Stud in Co Wicklow. There will surely be many more chapters in the Coolmore, and some will undoubtedly bring about a feeling of deja vu. But Magnier can look back with satisfaction that his vision of producing future stallions has been more successful than perhaps he could ever have hoped.
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