LOGAN is a character in the X-Men movie franchise, the one who became Wolverine. It might be stretching it to label Joey Logan a superhero but he certainly possesses an x-factor when it comes to sourcing and producing quality racehorses.

The CV he has built up led to an association with two of the newest and most substantial owners in Irish racing, English couple Andy and Gemma Brown, most of whose horses run under the Caldwell Construction banner and are trained by Gordon Elliott. Already, the success rate on the track has been considerable, with 11 winners, five runners-up and five third-place finishes from the last 29 runners at the time of writing.

But to listen to Logan, the best is yet to come, given the infancy of the operation and the callowness of the stock, many of which have still to see the track and all of which were acquired as young, unbroken stores rather than with point-to-point form.

It is how he had always done it himself, when selling the likes of ill-fated triple Grade 1 winner Finian’s Oscar, Champagne West and the potential superstar Grangeclare West through the ‘point factory’. He also pinhooked Aspire Tower from a rare foray into the yearling market, a foray that also yielded Coolagh Forest, who has accumulated almost €500,000 in prize money in Bahrain. In truth, there isn’t a sector of the industry the boss of Grangeclare Stud in Kilmeague, Co Kildare, isn’t cognisant of, as he also breeds on a small scale.

Trading is in the blood, though the background is in show jumping, an area he and his late father Jodie concentrated on before branching out.

“Going back 25 years ago, my father and I, we used to have a good few show jumping mares, half-bred mares,” Logan explains. “We used to breed them to Cavalier Royale and Cruising and those and sell the foals. Dr Noel Cawley (Renowned breeder and former CEO of the Irish Dairy Board) was very good to me at the time. We used to trick away and trade with them that way. One year we won the RDS three-year-old loose jumping with a nice horse.”

The racing bug kicked in after buying a mare in 2003 who they named One For Gretta, in memory of Logan’s late mother. The mare proved untalented but having put her in training with Joe Crowley, Joey had the opportunity to pick up a master’s knowledge. It was an opportunity he didn’t waste.

“I learned so much about buying horses from Joe Crowley, about horses in general. He was a very shrewd man.”

They became friendly and started going to the sales together, along with a friend of Crowley’s, Louis Murphy. A few years later, not long after Crowley had trained Hairy Molly to win the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, Logans Run was bought, and his talent paid dividends, albeit that Crowley’s strict rules on budget were broken in the bidding.

“Joe would have been a very good, shrewd operator. He would never pay huge money for horses and he had serious success as we all know. He picked out this horse and said, ‘I want you to try and buy this horse. I value him at €15,000. I won’t go in with you,’ he said, ‘because if they know I am interested, with Hairy Molly after winning the Champion Bumper, it could make him dear.’

Stupid money

“Louis Murphy came in with me. I stopped at €15,000 and Louis said, ‘Keep going, that lad will buy you a farm’. We ended up giving €24,000 for her. We went out and Joe says, ‘Some f*****g eejit is after paying stupid money for that lad’. I said I bought him. He said, ‘You’re a bigger fucking eejit!’ I will never forget it. Anyway, he went down to Joe’s and it worked out that Joe was mad about the horse.”

After finishing second on his debut in a Cork bumper, Logans Run won at Punchestown and the Curragh. Following another runner-up finish in Galway, he was sold to Howard Johnson for £220,000.

“That was back in ‘07 when sterling was €1.50 to the pound. It was a lot of money, it was like winning the Lotto.”

Murphy’s words proved prophetic as while the farm might not have been purchased immediately, the hobby became a business, with Logan’s wife Edel fully committed to the operation.

In 2012, they put in a two-furlong gallop at home and Fabian Burke came to work for him. They produced a number of point-to-point winners from a select squad. When Grangeclare Stud, which adjoins his own land, was put on the market by the Hendy family, he was able to secure a deal with his neighbours. That was the veritable game-changer.

“It came at the right time. We keep all our young stock on that part of the farm.”

But a two-year suspension in 2017 threatened to derail everything. The IHRB found him guilty of having Like A Diamond registered in training with Sharon Dunphy, but instead, having him trained at a different premises by Burke. It is a chain of events that he remains upset by, having contested the charge vehemently at the time of the hearing and subsequent appeal as ownership of the horse only transferred to him after his father’s death. He still maintains his innocence.

“That is a very, very sore point to be honest. I was actually very, very sour about it. My late father was the registered owner of the horse. For a long time I wasn’t involved and when my father passed away then, they automatically involved me in it.

“I put it behind me. My wife and I had twins at the time, and they kept me busy. But don’t get me wrong, it hurt me and I couldn’t go racing, I hadn’t the appetite for it. But it’s behind me now. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

The twins, Jodie and Donnacha are now approaching their fifth birthdays, with two older sisters Zara (14) and Caoimhe (10) completing the clan. They all share their parents’ equine passions, which has accentuated the enjoyment of past couple of years’ success.

Certainly, the link with the Browns heralded the start of a new, cheery chapter. Logan is now in prime position to acquire elite stock. As Manchester United have illustrated frequently over most of the past decade, spending money doesn’t guarantee the acquisition of quality. Logan’s judgement, however, is being highlighted time and again on the track. That the horses are all bought unbroken heightens his credibility.

Fil Dor was bought as a two-year-old at Arqana 12 months ago for €88,000 and is now favourite for the Triumph Hurdle. Mighty Potter, Boothen Boy, Fancy Foundations and Top Bandit, the latter owned in partnership with Daryl Gooch and Mark Cookson, are just some of the others to have created an early impression.

“We’ve been very successful in a short space of time. Andy and I have been working together closely and had some great results in the last 12 months.

“It’s all unbroken stores we buy. They are broken by Jamie Codd and ourselves before going on to be trained by Gordon Elliott. We don’t buy horses with form from point-to-points, we prefer to focus on the individual and the pedigree and then decide between us.

“Andy and Gemma have a serious bunch of young horses coming through that haven’t even run yet. They’re great supporters of Irish racing. We bought some nice stores at the Land Rover and Derby Sales and in France as well and they will go through to the same system, with Jamie and ourselves before going to Gordon. We’re very happy with them.”

Gemma and the two children name the horses.

“They’re a young couple who have been very successful in a short time. They really get a great kick out of it and enjoy coming over to the races with family and friends. They aren’t interested in selling, they only want good horses. They are in it for the long haul.”

Good news

Which is good news for Irish racing. It is also the continuation of a trend of British owners having their horses in training in Ireland. The chief attractions, says Logan, are the prize money and the competitiveness of the racing that allied with the standard of trainer, ensures more enjoyable days out and more rigorously tested individuals when it comes to the ultimate litmus test of Cheltenham, which is where the likes of the Browns want to be.

“The prize money in Ireland is fantastic as we all know. And the racing in Ireland is so competitive. When you go to Cheltenham and Aintree and all the big meetings, it’s the Irish that’s bringing home all the prize money and all the big trophies. That answers for itself over the last how many years.

“I can’t knock any trainer in the UK but they have a different way of training. The likes of Gordon and Willie and Henry and Noel Meade and all these fellas, the stats and results answer for themselves. Look at Joseph, such a young man and the results he is having is fantastic.

“We are very lucky to have the quality of horses in Ireland and we are very lucky to have the trainers and the owners to keep the horses in Ireland. We are very lucky we are big supporters. For a small little country I think we are in a very good place at the moment and long may it continue.”

With his own stock, he has built a fruitful partnership with Wexford handler Denis Murphy. They combined to produce Grangeclare West, who is in the could-be-anything category after bolting up under Codd at the rider’s local Lingstown meet in November of last year.

Having been bought at the Derby Sale for €62,000, he was sold to Elliott on behalf of Cheveley Park for £430,000, before being moved to Willie Mullins in the wake of the publication of the photo of Elliott sitting on the dead horse Morgan, which earned the trainer a six-month ban.

The son of Presenting won a bumper at the Punchestown Festival by nine lengths at the end of April and looks hugely promising.

“I bought him from Dick Frisby. We have bought an awful lot of horses from Dick and his son JJ. His wife Josie is a big part of the team too. They always buy a good foal with a pedigree and feed them very well. We bought Westend Star off him in 2012 and it carried on from there. I bought Finian’s Oscar from Dick. And Grangeclare West is the latest. He looks a very smart prospect.

“Denis told me, ‘This is a very smart horse that you have on your hands’. And Jamie always was praising his work, how good he was. So when he went on and won in Lingstown, it was a great kick. We had plenty of people on to try and buy the horse after it. I never sell horses privately, everything nearly always goes to a sale and I find the companies very good.

“We decided to send him to the sales (at Cheltenham) in the height of Covid (December 10th last year). We were concerned but he made the equivalent €500,000. I got a great kick out of that because they all run in my wife’s name. She loves the game to be fair and she is a great help to me. To go over there and to top a sale like that, it was a great enjoyment in the times we were in. I am looking forward to seeing him come out going novice hurdling this year.”

Producing

Producing racehorses is the name of the game of course, as pretty baubles that sell well but don’t produce will eventually stop buyers looking at your stock. To that end, Logan places huge value on what he sees standing in front of him.

“You would be looking at home when the catalogue comes out and you would always be sitting up in the evening time looking at it. But then you could get very disappointed when you go and see the individual that you had marked.

“What I do now is you go around and look at every horse at the sale. Because there is a horse there that mightn’t be marked suitable, could be an absolute belter of a horse and a real good-moving individual. And that is the one that could be the next champion. It will take a couple of days extra but look at every horse in the sale. You do your notes and then you sit down and you do your shortlist and make your decision then.”

Right now, the industry is in healthy condition and he does not believe that there are any signs of the point-to-point bubble bursting, with new owners constantly arriving. And while the prices of point-to-point maiden winners continue to rise, that money is trickling down through the pinhookers and breeders.

He hails the impact of the beefed-up mares’ programme and attendant bonuses that has helped create a market for the female of the species and improved the quality and value of their offspring. “It’s gone to the stage now if you like a horse there is no point waiting for the next one because the next one could make more than the first one. It’s great for the industry at the moment.

“Breeders are breeding better stock. The old-fashioned mares hadn’t won, now they are all blacktype mares. If you look at the likes of Apple’s Jade and Benie Des Dieux, these horses never used to come on the market.

“People are able to buy them and breed to the likes of all the good National Hunt sires that’s coming along. And that’s what people are doing, the whole industry is changed.”

With Joey Logan in the van.