FRAN O’Sullivan is looking forward to attending the Galway and Listowel festivals this year for the first time in decades, having just retired after almost 50 years researching pedigrees and compiling sales catalogues.

“Both Galway and Listowel clash with exceptionally busy times in the cataloguing world,” Fran explained this week. His attendance record at bloodstock sales has also been surprisingly light, for someone so closely associated with the business. “The only sales I could get to were in February or November. I had to miss all the yearling sales because I was so busy working on the foal sales catalogues.”

For those of us who take sales catalogues for granted and expect to find detailed pedigrees at the touch of a button these days, it’s a shock to learn from Fran that the job was done manually up to just 20 years ago.

His involvement started in 1974, the year when Red Rum won his first Grand National and Grundy was crowned champion two-year-old of Europe.

Fran recalled: “I was 23 and working in the civil service. My uncle Don Kelly worked for the Curragh Bloodstock Agency (CBA) but was setting up his own agency. He had the contract to produce sales catalogues for Goffs and he needed someone for his pedigree department. He knew I was interested, so that’s how I started.”

The office was in Beechmount House in Newbridge, near McLoughlin’s Garage. The late Denis Curtin looked after the insurance department.

Fran says pedigrees had to be compiled manually in those days, and I ask what exactly does that mean. The answer still has me shaking my head in disbelief.

“You would get the British racing calendar every week, where the registered names of racehorses were published. Then you’d write these names into the Return of Mares or the General Stud Book. From there you would go to the form book to update the race records.

“The catalogue pages were all done on a typewriter. Sometimes you could use a catalogue page from a previous year and just ‘arrow’ in the updates. Then it went to the printer and after that it had to be proof-read. You had to get the yearling catalogues off to the printer by May!”

In addition, Fran was compiling pedigrees for Don’s Irish clients who were selling in Doncaster. “Doncaster had a template for first dam, second dam, third dam.

“You’d write down the number of foals they had, and so on. Back in those days there were very few horses going outside Ireland or Britain, so that was all you needed to know. It was very rare that you’d have to include a winner in America.”

Redundant

Technology caught up with Fran after 10 years. “Weatherbys came up with a computerised pedigree in 1983 and they got the contract to produce the catalogues, so I was suddenly redundant.”

Fran pivoted to work for trainer Liam Browne, in the office. This was the era of Irish 2000 Guineas winner Dara Monarch and in the yard were Michael Kinane, Stephen Craine and Tommy Carmody. Despite the racing distraction, it didn’t take long for Fran’s pedigree prowess to be back in demand.

“I was coming into contact with owners and breeders who would tell me there was no place to get pedigrees of horses they had bred themselves or bought privately.” Mrs Marguerite Weld and Judge Frank Roe were two breeders in particular who were encouraging Fran to set up his own agency but he needed one final push.

“I heard that Goffs weren’t entirely happy with the computerised National Hunt pedigrees, so I telephoned [Goffs CEO] Jonathan Irwin and asked if I could help. He asked me to do the catalogue for the 1984 July Sale, a mixed sale of about 100 horses.”

That was the big break Fran needed and now he was back into the blacktype business. But first he had to restock his library. “I went to Newmarket in a horse plane and I bought stud books, form books, anything that would help. A cousin of mine had a HiAce van and he brought the books back on the boat.

After setting up a new office in the Kildare Enterprise Centre, Fran burned the midnight oil making sure every winner and placed horse was listed in that catalogue, his wife Trish helping out when she wasn’t busy raising their two sons.

Weatherbys link

The trial went well, prompting Goffs to ask Fran to go to Weatherbys in Wellingborough in July and September to oversee and edit their flat sales catalogues. Not only did this cement Fran’s association with Goffs, it also saw him get to know the team at Weatherbys, who would go on to be his friends and colleagues.

For a period in the 1990s Fran actually won back the Goffs contract for the production of all their sales catalogues.

In those days the Kildare Enterprise Centre housed a few other equine businesses. There was Turform, run by Ger Kelly and his brother Don (Fran’s old boss), and Philip and Larry Masterson were “selling bits and pieces out of a tiny office” which would grow into Thoroughbred Remedies Ireland.

Fran had up to six employees at one stage. Sue Matthews, daughter of the late Peadar and wife of the much-missed Anthony Powell and mother to apprentice Jamie, was a key team member, along with Liam Clarke (of Kildare Racing Club fame), Eamon Reilly (now BBA Ireland), Veronica Dunny, Maureen White (sister of bookmakers Colm and Des), Louise Crowe and Eimear McDonagh.

Private clients included Tom Costello and Henrietta Knight. The job was seven days a week from July to October. “That was the way ever since I started in 1974. I rarely went flat racing but for a period in the 1990s I never missed a Saturday meeting during the winter.”

Business was booming. In fact it was going too well. Fran explains: “We were now doing the catalogues for Tattersalls Ireland as well. Then Tattersalls wanted to talk to us about doing the Newmarket sales too. It was just too much to take on. We had computers but to keep pace would have required a huge investment and it just wasn’t worth it.”

And so in 2002 all the sales company contracts moved back to Weatherbys but Fran’s expertise was still required by Goffs, who have retained Fran’s services for the past 20 years as the company’s liaison with Weatherbys.

“It started off that I would do everything except compile the pedigrees. I would get the entry forms and put them on the Weatherbys system. They would run the pedigrees. I would edit them and send themout to vendors. The vendors send their corrections to me and I made them. Goffs didn’t see anything until the catalogue was out.

“That changed over the years. I started doing research for Weatherbys and they gave me access to their database. I’ve done a variety of things but the bottom line is that I made sure the catalogue got out on time.”

In 2007 the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association honoured Fran for his contribution to the industry, and God knows how many breeders and consignors have reason to thank Fran for uncovering a bit of blacktype or an obscure winner which resulted in an extra bid or two.

Around that time Fran left the Enterprise Centre and set up his own office at home. “We were given notice to quit as the Centre was to be knocked and replaced with apartments and a shopping centre. The crash came and those plans were scrapped but I had already decided to build my own office at home and moved in August 2007.”

For the past couple of years, Fran has eased off and focused on vendor corrections. Now he has powered down the computer for the final time and is ready to start a new chapter, away from the desk.

Well done, Fran, and thank you.

‘A hugely significant contributor to our industry’

I FIRST met Fran O’Sullivan when I joined Goffs in January 1989, writes Nick Nugent.

In those days, the telex was being phased out and the fax machine had just arrived in the office. Email and the internet was still some way off, so pedigrees were considerably more arduous to compile and edit.

Fran was based in the Kildare Enterprise Centre, a huge building as you head into Kildare town from the racecourse.

I would be regularly despatched by Mella Kehoe, who ran the Goffs office, with a large envelope of the day’s entries, and then return with another envelope with first versions of the pedigrees from the previous day’s.

Fran was assisted in those days by Liam Clarke (now a part-owner of Sonnyboyliston) and Eamon Reilly (BBA Ireland).

In any service-related business, the secret of success is the ability to react calmly to the most trying of demands. Fran is a master of this skill and I have no doubt that I am among many who have tested his patience on a number of occasions.

The prompt provision of accurate pedigrees is an unheralded cornerstone of our industry, which makes Fran a hugely significant contributor to all Irish bloodstock auctions for as long as most have us have been involved in them.

Fran’s catalogue epilogue

Library looking for good home

“I have English form books going back to the 1930s, Keylock’s Dams of Winners from 1915 up to the 1990s, and General Stud Books going back to Vol 28 in 1933. There’s Mackenzie & Selby point-to-point annuals, Irish point-to-point form books, French Meres de Gagnant back to 1941, German and Indian stud books, and even Miss Prior’s Half-Bred Stud Book.”

Kildare Racing Club

“One day Liam Clarke and I went to Killarney races to give out leaflets announcing the launch of the Club. Phoenix Park was on that evening and drove back and put leaflets on all the cars there. That’s how the first syndicate was formed. It was virtually unheard of at the time.”

Future plans

“I hope to do a bit of travel. Portugal is a favourite spot and a few cruises would be nice. I’ve just been elected chairman of Milltown GAA. This will be my third stint in 30 years. I also hope to spend more time with my two grandchildren. Our eldest son Eoin works in HRI’s finance department, and our youngest lad Niall is a national school teacher.”

Catalogue changes

“The Irish National Hunt standard of blacktype races badly requires reviewing. I don’t think any Grade A handicap should receive a Grade 1 rating. Grade 1 should only be championship races off level weights, fillies’ allowances apart.

The Kerry National and the Irish National are two examples of races which appear as Grade 1 in sales catalogues. The Aintree equivalent is Grade 3!”

Unsung hero of Irish bloodstock

FRAN O’Sullivan is truly an unsung hero of the Irish bloodstock industry, writes James McHale of Weatherbys. He’s someone who has almost certainly produced and edited more sales and private pedigree pages than anyone else in history!

For 48 years, through his work for Goffs and Tattersalls - and the last 20 years with Weatherbys - Fran has been an integral part of the effective functioning of countless sales.

His accuracy and attention to detail have been second to none and whilst he will be incredibly hard to replace we wish him a long and happy retirement with his wife Tricia, and hope that he doesn’t miss the vendor queries too much during the sales season!