PHARMACIST JUST PART OF WINNING CHEMISTRY AT BALLYLINCH STUD
IF THE cheers were ringing out at Churchill Downs on Saturday for Breeders’ Cup Turf hero Red Rocks, you can bet they were echoing pretty loudly in County Kilkenny, too, particularly at Ballylinch Stud, near Thomastown, where Paul Reddam’s colt was bred.
Breeding top-classvictors in the US is nothing new for the stud, with dual Grade 1 winner River Keen already on the roll of honour, and Ballylinch has long been noted as a source of high-class performers from the select group of broodmares based there, as well as the fiveGroup/Grade 1-winning stallions n its roster.
Soviet Star, now 22 and sire of such as Starcraft, and King’s Theatre, sire of high-class performers under both codes, have been joined by three up-and-coming young sires, including the 2004 Irish 2,000Guineas winner Bachelor Duke, the impeccably bred Grade 1 Oaklawn Handicap winner Traditionally, and top-class miler Whipper.
Ballylinch Stud boasts an impressive history as a home of champions, having been built in 1914 by Major Dermot McCalmont, whowanted a suitable stud farm to stand his outstanding racehorse The Tetrarch.
In 1987 the McCalmont family sold the Mount Juliet estate, of which Ballylinch is a part, to Killeen Investments, headed by chairman Dr Tim Mahony, and the estate is now home to a renowned golf course and hotel complex as well as the stud.
Stud manager John O’Connor has been at the helm since 1988, having qualified as a vet at University College, Dublin, and then spent time working in France and Australia. Since comingto Ballylinch he has overseen the development of both the stallion roster and the high-class broodmare band owned by the stud.
He explains: "We’ve been developing the broodmare band since 1989. When I started at Ballylinch we only had four mares and some fillies in training, and it’s just grown from there. We keep around 25 mares and aim to keep the quality high so we do sell a few every year, and replace them with either fillies we’ve bred and raced or mares we buy in."
Among the many notable racemares at Ballylinch are the 1991 Prix de Diane winner Caerlina, the 1995 Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Priory Belle, and the French Listed winner Majinskaya, who is dam of Ballydoyle’s highly-regarded Montjeu colt Chinese Whisper, third in the Group 1 Gran Criterium last month.
Black type is a common feature among the Ballylinch broodmare band. O’Connor says: "I’d say around 60 to 70 per cent of our mares are stakes winners. Because we’ve got a relatively small number of mares it’s important that we try to be as selective as possible. We do buy in selectively to try to update some of the families we’re developing."
Although the five stallions resident at Ballylinch naturally feature in the mating plans for the stud’s mares, O’Connor is also keen to use outside stallions. He says: "We use a mix of proven stallions on other farms and our own stallions. We certainly support our sires with well-bred mares, particularly maiden mares, but we like to use other stallions as well."
The stud’s most recent star performer, Red Rocks, is among those sired by an ‘outsider’ – in his case, Galileo – but he is a second generation Ballylinch-bred, being out of a mare who was produced by the stud. His dam, Pharmacist, is a daughter of the late Machiavellian, in whom Ballylinch had a share, out of the speedy Pharaoh’s Delight. Trained by Dermot Weld, Pharaoh’s Delight won the 1989 Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at two, and then developed into a high-class sprinter, placing in the Nunthorpe, Haydock Park Sprint Cup and the Prix de l’Abbaye at three.
Bought out of training by Ballylinch at four, the Fairy King mare went on to produce two fillies by Caerleon, both of whom raced in Japan.
Her next mating was with Machiavellian, and Pharmacist was the result, foaled in 1996. Although not in the same league as her dam, the filly proved a useful performer when put into training with Weld, winning the Listed Rochestown Stakes over 6f as a two-year-old.
Red Rocks is not Pharmacist’s first stakes-winning foal; her first mating, with Linamix, produced the Listed winner Medicinal, now in training for Ballylinch with Andre Fabre.
Having foaled a colt by Sinndar in 2002, Pharmacist was sent to Galileo, then in his first season at Coolmore standing for Ir£50,000. The product was Red Rocks, a colt who impressed O’Connor from the beginning.
"He was an extremely athletic colt," he remembers. "He wasn’t particularly precocious, but he was always a great walker. He wasn’t necessarily a sales horses, but he always looked like he would be an athlete."
The general policy at Ballylinch is to sell its colts and retain the fillies for racing, although this policy depends, O’Connor says, on the balance of the stud’s racing stock.
Red Rocks was part of the draft offered at the Goffs Orby sale in 2004, and although not the most costly of the horses offered by Ballylinch that year – that honour went to a Green Desert colt out of the Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Priory Belle, bought by for 160,000gns – he still made a healthy price when purchased by McKeever St Lawrence for €150,000.
Pharmacist foaled a filly by Linamix this year and was bred back to Rock Of Gibraltar, while her dam, the 19-year-old Pharaoh’s Delight, is being rested, having produced a May filly to Bachelor Duke this year. The daughter of the 2004 Irish 2,000 Guineas winner is, according to O’Connor, "the nicest foal she’s had since Pharmacist".
Red Rocks’s greatest triumph may have happened thousands of miles away, but the victory was celebrated well at his birthplace.
"A win like that – it gives the team validation of what they do. We’ve a great team and whether you’re the man who foaled him or who prepped him for the sale, or the people working in the office, it’s a great boost for everyone," O’Connor says.
"Breeding big winners is what we’re all about. Our aim is to breed good horses –that’s what we’re focused on. If we can be a commercial success along the way, that’s great, but I think if you breed a real good horse then success at the sales will follow."
Ballylinch’s Nicola Woolley made the trip to Churchill Downs to cheer on Red Rocks, while the rest of the team watched at home.
O’Connor says: "I’d spoken to Brian Meehan and Johnny McKeever and they were keen on his chances, and we had a few friends over and watched the races here at the stud.
"Some of the lads were down in Thomastown to watch him, and I think they’d had a few bets and celebrated properly."
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