THERE is a headline on the Ballyhane Stud website that reads ‘From conception to racetrack’, detailing the various strands of the business that has been flourishing since Joe Foley got it under way on the family farm just outside Leighlinbridge in 1991.

It could just as easily be applied to Foley’s work on Irish Champions Weekend, which is almost upon us.

For it is the germination of his idea that will result in what organisers hope will be a racing and social extravaganza at Leopardstown and the Curragh on September 13-14th.

It all began as a result of his friendship with David Redvers, the Tweenhills Stud boss who is also a respected bloodstock agent and racing/bloodstock manager for Sheikh Fahad Al-Thani.

When the British Champions Series concept got off the ground, Redvers invited Foley to Ascot for Champions Day as a guest of the Sheikh’s. The Irishman loved everything about it and the seed was sown.

Luckily, the man is a doer. Where many who think “Wouldn’t it be great to have something like that in Ireland?” promptly forget about it, Foley went researching and typing.

“I remember looking at the race programme and seeing a bunch of races all around early-to-mid-September, which if you brought them together, would make a very spectacular weekend of Irish racing. I thought it would be nice to have them at two tracks. That would be different, and the Curragh and Leopardstown are only 25 minutes apart.

“So I sort of formulated it a little bit, naively. I’m a governor of the European Breeders’ Fund and we were reviewing all our sponsorship at that stage so I prepared a paper on it and suggested a Champions Weekend in Ireland to the EBF guys.”

They liked it and so Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland, was approached. Kavanagh got the HRI board onside and then, as chairman of the European Pattern Committee, was in a strong position to put a programme together. HRI’s Director of Racing, Jason Morris was heavily involved too.

The two racetracks came on board so a committee was established under the chairmanship of Harry McCalmont, and including Foley, to work on “the bits and pieces”.

Some of the reaction has been lukewarm but Foley accepts that as inevitable. It is forgotten now that there was far from universal love for the innovation across the water when it first came on stream too but you don’t hear too many dissenters now.

“I see some people are being a bit negative about it but we’re really trying to make it a success in terms of attracting good runners to it. We’re really working hard on that, and obviously trying to get as big an attendance at both race days as we can, and provide then with a really good day’s racing on both days.

“It has attracted some spin-offs already. We’ve had some good international sponsors arrive because of it that didn’t sponsor in Ireland before. QIPCO being one, John Deere being another, Clipper Logistics being another and there’s maybe another in the pipeline.

“So let’s hope it works and let’s hope that people support it.”

The Foley influence was undoubtedly helpful in securing some of those sponsors, given his friendship with Redvers and the fact that Clipper Logistics is a client. As they found in Britain, having strong, committed sponsorship is vital to an enduring event.

“It’s a long-term thing and all the sponsors are in on three-to-five year contracts on average. Both racetracks are very much in and Horse Racing Ireland and Brian have very much bought into the thing.

“So it’s definitely not a one-year thing. It’s not going to revert to what it was. It’s there to stay. Everyone’s committed to it. But we’re very keen for it to start very well.”

There are definite targets for what would be considered a success. With €1.5m of increased prize money spread across all the races, bringing a total of just under €3.8m, you aim to attract the best horses.

Having Aidan O’Brien indicate that Australia will make the Champion Stakes is “important”. The St Leger looks strong while having Sole Power in the Flying Five would be a coup, given that the sprint star hasn’t run in Ireland in three years.

It will be important to attract a strong British entry too.

“We have a lot of people booked to come already. There are lots of corporate bookings, lots of English people coming to both days. So we’re trying to attract lots of British horses to run as well and I think we are. The early signs are that they’re going to come for the prize money.

“We’ve a big Champions’ Dinner on the Saturday night and we’ve invited all the key people from around the globe that support Irish racing and breeding. There are lots of trainers and other connections invited as well. So we’re enticing them to come with a couple of their racehorses.

“We’d love to get an Ireland versus England competition thing going along the lines of what happens in Cheltenham. That’s an ambition, to make it a competitive weekend and attract as many of the British over as we can and take them on with the good Irish horses.”

It isn’t all about the Group 1 races either. There are four handicaps worth €150,000 and you can envisage Ger Lyons, Paul Deegan, Sabrina Harty, Andy Oliver, Willie McCreery and David Marnane looking to hit the target there.

This is a key element of the weekend. The organisers are at pains to emphasise that this is not exclusive or elitist. That applies to the racing, but to the general public too.

The aim is to have a minimum of 20,000 people attend both days and the promotional campaign has been ramping up in the last week with online, radio and newspaper campaigns.

There will be the usual sideline fashion competitions for the best dressed and most appropriately dressed, while Moyglare Stud are funding children’s zones at the Curragh to encourage families to make the trip.

“We realised National Hunt racing is extremely popular with people in this country but if we can provide good racehorses to run on the flat and provide a good, fun environment for people in the Curragh and Leopardstown, and obviously we’re hoping for good weather… we’re going to try to provide lots of entertainment for people to have a good weekend. We would love people to leave Leopardstown and Curragh racetracks saying ‘that was good craic and we’d love to come back next year’.”

Foley envisages the positives at every angle. Not only does he hope to convert people to flat racing, and encourage more British trainers to bring their horses here, but he sees a tremendous chance to attract investment in Irish bloodstock.

“You’d love to see Andy Oliver’s Panama Hat win and the Team Valor racing team to come over and see it all two weeks before the yearling sales start in Ireland.

“The idea is to promote the whole Irish bloodstock and racing industry, to bring in people like Team Valor to see Panama Hat running for big prize money in Leopardstown.

“It’s to promote the jockeys, the trainers, the racetracks and everything and then they’ll come back to the yearling sales two weeks later.”

If they were to buy a product of Ballyhane, he wouldn’t object either. At present, he has a roster of six stallions. Arakan has produced the likes of Dick Turpin in the past and sired last year’s champion two-year-old Toormore, as well as this year’s Gladness Stakes victor, Sruthan. His popularity has increased as a result.

The same applies to Dandy Man, who has the highest-rated three-year-old sprinter in Britain, Extortionist advertising his credentials, having given him a Royal Ascot success from his first crop of runners last year.

The stud has two sires with first-crop yearlings this year going to the sales. Roderic O’Connor was the first classic winner to stand at Ballyhane.

The Irish 2000 Guineas hero is a son of Galileo and his first yearling made €145,000 at Arqana on Monday. Frozen Power is a German 2000 Guineas winner whose yearlings look promising too according to Foley. Elzaam (first foals this year) and Red Jazz (in his first season at Ballyhane) complete the team.

“It’s good when you’re selling stock into a rising market. It gives you a good chance.

“The market took a huge dive with the recession. There’s a lot of people gone out of the business but people who did the job well, good breeders and good horsemen - and there’s quite a few of them in Ireland - good entrepreneurs; they have survived and I would suggest are in a good position to move forward.

“The market is ramping up quickly. I’ve just come back from the Arqana Sales in Deauville. They were very, very strong. If that trade continues into the English and Irish markets it’s going to be a very good trade for everybody.

“A rising market brings new challenges as well. It’s more difficult to invest. I buy the yearlings for Clipper Logistics. I bought a Lawman filly for them at Goffs last year for €23,000, called Agnes Stewart. She was very good. She won her maiden and was second in a Group 3 on her second start.

“So we spotted another very nice Lawman in France. We bought her last night (Monday) but she cost €110,000. That’s a significant difference.”

Swings and roundabouts. Whether the market is up or down, you have to know what it is doing and what you are doing. Trust your judgement.

Of course, during the recession, costs had to be cut and you had to be careful about spending in a limited market. The Racing Post Bonus Scheme was a very welcome initiative in that it incentivised owners to invest.

It did its job well until the BOBIS scheme was established exclusively for British breeders. Now the Plus 10 bonus scheme is up and running, combining both countries and that is a positive development according to Foley.

“It’s good that the Irish and English are working together on a new scheme. I didn’t like the BOBIS scheme being solely for the British industry. It didn’t make much sense so it’s good that there’s co-operation between both countries with the new scheme going forward.”

The Foleys enjoyed more success at the end of July when Joe’s wife, Jane trained a winner at the Galway Festival at the first attempt. Surreal won a handicap at 25/1 under Gary Carroll but Joe wasn’t there.

“I was in Goodwood. I have a habit of not being there for the winners. That was a great thrill. The way the training evolved was, we prepare breeze-ups for the sales.

“Jane is very good at that and we’ve sold some very good horses over the last five years doing that. We also pre-train all the racehorses for Clipper Logistics.

“So we’ve the facilities and the staff for doing that in the early part of the year and we just thought for fun that Jane would take out a licence just to use those facilities in the quiet time, which is the summer and autumn.

“She’s just training some homebreds or things we’ve failed to sell, about 12-to-15 in total. She’s doing a great job, along with Triona, her head girl. They work very hard at it. It’s great fun when you have a winner. It’s the most amazing adrenaline buzz you can get.”

So, everything seems to be very positive right now, no matter what way Joe Foley looks.

“Do you know what? They are. I think the international market for horses is good. The National Hunt market was brilliant. We bought four horses for Clipper Logistics at the Land Rover and Derby Sales this year. They were very strong.

“It’s great to see the National Hunt section getting a lift as well ‘cos they’ve been very much in the doldrums the last few years. They didn’t have the international market that the flat business does so it was heart-warming seeing a lot of those guys getting a touch and that will follow into the National Hunt foals in November. So for the first time in a number of years, there’s a big sign of light at the end of the tunnel in the National Hunt game, which is great.

“The flat game seems to be well on the way to being a proper business again. So from a market point of view it’s looking good after a good few years in the doldrums.”

Here’s hoping the Irish Champions Weekend confirms the impression.