ON Sunday at the Curragh, I sponsor the inaugural running of the Royal Lytham At Irish Emerald Stud Maiden. It had been a long-held ambition of mine to stand my own stallion; something that has thankfully come to fruition over the last 12 months. Having received plenty of positive feedback from breeders and industry professionals, I am very much looking forward to the next couple of years.

My father had an interest in National Hunt racing and had the odd horse in training. I took an interest from going to point-to-points and racing with him. After getting my first pony at the age of seven, I learned to ride at the local Markree Riding Stables. While my home county of Sligo wouldn’t have a huge thoroughbred or racing community, there is a lot of showjumping and general horse riding. From the age of 10, I also did some showjumping and hunting.

Despite my love for horses, I wasn’t very good at showjumping or riding in general for that matter! Around 12, I began to take an interest in breeding, at a time when my father had some contacts in a racing club. There were a couple of breeders within the club and I got my first mare two years later.

She was a cheap mare but a good experience to start with - to be honest I didn’t research the family at all as I didn’t know much about her until she landed down to me. She had an Imperial Ballet colt that I sold that year for a little more than the purchase price of the mare. So, after a reasonably good start, I had some small success with that mare and also from a couple of store horses and then reinvested what I made in shares in other mares.

School wasn’t for me and I left when I was 16. Initially I worked in a warehouse for a few months before getting a job with local Sligo trainer Michael McElhone. I learned plenty there about general yard duties and helped with breaking the younger horses. However, Michael knew my main interest was in breeding, so he helped me apply for work at Kildangan Stud. I got a response from Kildangan to say it was their policy for employees to be over 18 but to reapply for a position when I had reached that age. In the meantime, I completed an equine course in CAFRE which was very educational, then at the age of 17 after just getting my first car, I got a job in Rathbarry Stud. I did a breeding season there where I had my own barn of mares and foals to look after. Daily tasks would include mucking out, bringing mares to get checked with vets and teasing, turning mares and foals out and general yard duties. I learned a lot and it was a lovely farm to work in.

Then the following year after turning 18, I reapplied for a position in Kildangan stud. I was lucky enough to be given a chance and started in January of that year. Kildangan, as you can imagine, is a beautiful stud and place to work. Again, I did all the general yard duties but I also got to do lots of work in the covering shed, including handling mares for covers.

The great Cape Cross was there at the time and many a mare I held while he covered them. That was my favourite role in Kildangan, as having stallions was something I always wanted to do even at that age in life. I also did foal watch occasionally; I loved working there and learned a lot in my short time there.

Produce

Nowadays, I do regular business with Kildangan sending some of my own mares to their stallions so it’s gone full circle. I got my first mare in 2000 and with the money I got from her produce, I bought shares in a couple of other mares. We got very lucky with one in 2003 - she had a very nice Fasliyev filly and Fasliyev was leading first crop sire that year. We got €82,000 for that foal, that would be the highlight until I set up on my own. I also did well with some National Hunt foals I bought and resold as stores, with the highlight being a €42,000 sale as a three-year-old from an €11,000 foal purchase.

Irish Emerald Stud is a company I formed in 2017, after leaving Kildangan Stud. I moved home to Sligo and had a few different businesses myself over the years, and while I didn’t have a huge hands-on involvement with horses, I was always keeping a close eye on things. It was always my intention to form my own stud and around 2015 I decided I would move east and find a farm. A year later, I was lucky to find a nice farm in Carbury that was within my budget and in 2017 I moved to Kildare and established Irish Emerald Stud.

So far it has been going well and I am confident for its success going forward. I’d been actively looking last year for a stallion I believed breeders would want, in terms of speed, precocity, pedigree and as a physical specimen. Royal Lytham has all of those in abundance - he’s a stunning individual and has a fantastic pedigree and he won the stallion-making July Stakes in one of the fastest times in history, making him a really attractive option for breeders.

He was a precocious two-year-old with a lot of speed, and if you look at his races, he was always very professional and an extremely tough and robust individual. Royal Lytham has gone down well with breeders and has been very well supported. I have some very attractive options and terms for breeders and everyone that has dealt with me to date has been appreciative.

I want to work with all breeders now and going forward as they are the backbone for the whole industry. As a breeder myself, I understand and appreciate the hard work and costs involved from when it all begins in the breeding shed to getting your foal sold the following year. My hopes and plans for the next few years is to keep learning, keep growing the business in terms of broodmares etc and I am already on the lookout for another stallion for next year.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has supported both myself and Royal Lytham to date and for all mare owners who are still to decide on a stallion for this year, I would encourage them to come and view Royal Lytham as they won’t be disappointed.

Gary Duffy was in conversation with John O’Riordan

Correction: In last week’s column we incorrectly called Danny Sheehan as Derry