KAZAKHSTAN has emerged as a significant market for Irish-bred horses this year and it’s partly down to former classic-winning jockey Declan Gillespie, as well as Irish Thoroughbred Marketing and Goffs.

Gillespie rode four Irish classic winners in the 1980s and has kept busy in his retirement, based in Malaysia working as a representative for Connolly’s Red Mills in Asia.

It’s a pretty big region to cover and, even though Kazakhstan is over 5,000km from Malaysia, Gillespie has customers in the former Soviet republic. He takes up the story: “Through Red Mills, I’m an advisor to the racetrack in Almaty [Kazakhstan’s main city]. They’d been buying horses in France and Germany, and I advised their agents to buy some in Ireland.

“They bought 12 at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale in 2024 and they came back this year and bought 34, mostly yearlings and some horses in training. Endurance racing is very popular in Kazakhstan, and buying horses off the flat is not really ideal for that game, so it was suggested they go to the National Hunt foal sales in Ireland. Through Bobby O’Ryan, they bought 20 of them last week at Goffs.”

Gillespie says the Kazakhstanis enjoyed their time in Ireland, during which they visited some stud farms and the Red Mills factory in Goresbridge.

Racing in Asia has suffered a few setbacks in recent years, so Gillespie thinks Kazakhstan is an exciting new market. “Racing has stopped in Macau, Singapore and Penang. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world and horses are part of their culture for centuries.

“The track at Almaty is all-weather and they race under floodlights, from April to November. There are just 12 trainers at the moment but they are looking for more horses.”

Racing in Kazakhstan received a huge boost in 2024 when Kabirkhan won a Group 1 race in Meydan. The four-year-old by California Chrome had been bought as a yearling at Keeneland for just $12,000 and was unbeaten in Kazakhstan as a two-year-old.

At three he raced with success in Russia before transferring to Dubai where Doug Watson trained him to win a leg of the Al Maktoum Challenge on dirt. Kabirkhan is now trained by Bhupat Seemar and was due to run in Meydan yesterday.

Gillespie, whose son Tom is a successful trainer in South Korea, says: “Fair play to Jeremy Greene [formerly of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing] and Bobby O’Ryan for the help they gave to the Kazakhstanis when they came to Ireland. The racing in Kazakhstan is not at a high standard but they want more horses and it is a great opportunity for Irish exports.”

Charles O’Neill, chief executive of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, said: “David Burns of ITM and Goffs agent Kishore Mirpuri have been over and back to Kazakhstan since 2019. It’s great to see the hard work done by them, and Declan Gillespie, has come to fruition.”

Burns added: “ITM has sponsored racing in Kazakhstan for the past couple of years. They are lovely people and it’s a growing market. Kyrgyzstan is another emerging market for Irish horses which we hope to explore further in the new year.”