IT is only a few years ago, when Michael O’Leary announced the phasing down of his investment in National Hunt racing for the time being at least, that the alarm bells chimed on the Irish scene. Given how much Gigginstown House Stud and their agents were spending on prime stock, would it spell disaster for breeders, producers and indeed trainers like Gordon Elliott in particular, that they would be pulling stumps?

In the light of the negative press racing gets sometimes, some self-inflicted and the rest undeserved, we can forget about the attraction owning racehorses in Ireland holds, and what fun a day at the track can be.

Ownership is a leisure pursuit and for the largest part, racing needs people with deep pockets to get their kicks from having horses and watching them run. As the ‘Minella Master’, John Nallen says, it’s about “toys for big boys”. That attraction fuels a sport and an industry.

Far from spark a racing recession, a prediction by some shrewdies that Gigginstown’s recalibration would lead to new investors has proven sage indeed. Andy and Gemma Brown are among the newest kids on the block, having gone from 0-60 (mph, not handicap rating) in about two seconds flat, recording their first Grade 1 triumph with Mighty Potter in the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown on December 27th, a day after previous Grade 3 victor Fil Dor had bagged Grade 2 spoils in the Knight Frank Juvenile Hurdle.

That impact has been felt and welcomed by Elliott, particularly as he hit the ground running after his return from suspension, having been backed with numbers and quality. The Cullentra House trainer has repaid that faith with expert handling to date.

On a broader scale, the Browns’ interest has been beneficial for the sport and the wider industry of Irish racing. Most of the horses that have run this year carried the ownership title of Caldwell Construction, the groundworks and civil engineering company set up and run by Andy and Gemma.

The red and white colours are those of hometown club Stoke City, where the company has become a major sponsor, with the South Stand of the Potters’ stadium now named the Caldwell Construction Stand.

Andy had had an involvement in a syndicate previously, which gave them a taste for racing and it was through that he encountered Logan. When making the decision to invest significantly, he called on the Kilmeague man and charged him with finding the stock.

“When Covid came at the beginning he was going to buy a couple of horses,” Logan reveals. “Because the sales and that were postponed, I went around the country looking at horses, and any nice horse I saw I used to put it to him. I recommended 40 horses over three months. So we went and bought 15 or 16 horses when everything was on lockdown.”

Mighty Potter, Top Bandit, Boothen Boy and Hiaou are all winners who came from that first batch, a remarkable return given the majority were acquired as unbroken stores. It is a testament to Logan’s eye but he does some of the pre-training too at his Grangeclare Stud, with Jamie Codd the other primary educator of the Brown youngsters.

High achiever

Like any high achiever, Brown clearly possesses a competitive spirit and he is not interested in owning a team of handicappers. While he understands the depth of the sporting side, and the unpredictability of horses, particularly when purchasing three-year-olds, it is in Grade 1s he wants to be operating at, roaring on his charges along with his wife Gemma and their two children at Punchestown, Fairyhouse and Leopardstown. And at Cheltenham.

“He’s after going into an awful lot of horses in a short space of time and is just after putting a serious bunch of young horses together,” Logan notes.

What adds to the value of what they have achieved together is that the likes of top juvenile hurdlers Pied Piper and Fil Dor, and Supreme Novices’ Hurdle hot prospect Mighty Potter, are very much seen as horses for the future, with chasing always slated to be their primary jobs. Yet a Cheltenham triumph, from one of that trio, or perhaps Chemical Energy in the Martin Pipe or Top Bandit in the County Hurdle, is a real possibility for the Browns in their first full season.

“I am used to buying the point-to-pointer. And 99.9% of the horses I bought are 16.3hh chasers in the making. So what they are doing now, as Gordon said, it’s raw material. There’s eight or nine horses that are after winning like Top Bandit, Boothen Boy, Mighty Potter, even as far as Fil Dor... they were bought to go chasing.

“I am always trying to buy a big individual, a good-looking horse that can walk and trot correctly. Then if the pedigree and everything adds up, you are 90% there.

“What we have done up to now, we have bought stores unbroken but there is nothing to say that, if a real nice point-to-pointer comes along and he goes to sale that Andy will not try to buy one. He hasn’t bought any yet but that is not to say he won’t in the future.”

The Browns have been sold on racing from every perspective. Winning good races helps of course but the hospitality, the atmosphere and the quality have all been important ingredients.

“It’s a great story for Irish racing. They are a young couple, based in the UK and they put so much money into the Irish racing, it’s actually fantastic. They were very loyal to Gordon as well. It works very well and Andy is a very easy man to get on with.

“It hasn’t been easy with Covid but Andy has been over a few times. He was over before Covid once, him and Gemma. Then he came over himself then at Fairyhouse with a few mates. Fil Dor won that day, Sa Fureur was third in the bumper and Mighty Potter was beaten a length and a quarter in the Royal Bond. Covid has made it hard but hopefully things ease off and they will get over more.

“They enjoy it but Andy wants to be competitive at the top end. Obviously, he is competitive, whatever business he does he has been successful. When he puts his mind to something, he tries to make sure it works.”

Gemma is the main contributor to the naming of the horses and the children’s opinions are canvassed too. This is the broad appeal that racing can have and does have once it is exposed to new people in the right way. Not everyone can have a good horse, of course, but when you have invested to the level the Browns have, the lustre would wear off quickly if you hadn’t some quality in there. Fortunately for the couple from the Potteries, they possess quite a few.

“The horses would be running in such competitive races at the moment and are able to compete at the top end at the Irish festivals and winning these races, so we’re very happy. It just shows that they have good talent. We’re hoping when they mature, a lot of them are only four and five, so when they get a summer of grass, and come back and go chasing, I think we are going to see totally different horses.”

Which is saying something given the quintet they will likely have representing them at Cheltenham, allowing for the usual provisos of fitness and health.

“It’s exciting for everybody and, in fairness to Gordon, he is after doing a great job on them.”

As for what it would mean for them to record a Cheltenham winner, in the nascency of the Browns’ involvement?

“It would be a fairytale. To be going to Cheltenham with four or five good chances and if one of them wins you would be happy. That is what it is all about, it is the Olympics of the sport. Andy and Gemma and their kids are going to be there, their friends as well, so it would be brilliant.

“It’s great to be going this year, with such a short time involved, and to have such a nice bunch of horses going. A lot can go wrong, a lot can happen, but hopefully we all arrive there safely and then if we could have a winner, it would be fantastic.” ?