Tattersalls Ireland Derby sale- jump racing future stars

[dazzler]

Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale – Jump Racing’s Future Stars
By geegeez.co.uk

While focus remains firmly on a thrilling Flat season, with the likes of Golden Horn, Gleneagles and Treve putting in dazzling displays, the world of National Hunt continues to turn and as such the Derby Sale at Tattersalls Ireland attracted plenty of attention last week.
Trade was certainly enthusiastic with day one seeing bloodstock agent Bobby O’Ryan purchasing the most expensive lot when stumping-up €170,000 for a son of Big Bad Bob. The three-year-old is a half-brother to Jonjo’s successful jumper Johns Spirit, and O’Ryan is clearly hoping for big things from him, saying: “He is a cracking horse, a lovely horse. He looks a real bumper type, which would be a bonus, and the sire is doing very well. He stays in Ireland.”
The sales attracted the usual suspects with cheque books at the ready, including Highflyer Bloodstock, Monbeg Stables, Noel Meade and a very active purchaser, Venetia Williams. She spent a cool €235,000 on five lots including €62,000 for a son of Beneficial out of the successful broodmare Roseallain. The stout looking dam’s side of the family includes Roselier and Le Moss, and has produced classy jumpers such as She Ranks Me and Cooldine.
Kevin Ross was another productive agent scooping two valuable lots. Famed for sourcing such stars as Imperial Commander, Macs Joy and more recently Shaneshill and Ballynagour, a gelding by the popular sire Stowaway was his most expensive purchase at €160,000. Out of a Supreme Leader mare, the youngster looks an exciting prospect. Anna Ross seemed pretty pleased with the day’s business, saying: “He is for an existing client and will stay in Ireland. I thought he was the nicest horse in the sale, a beautiful horse, very athletic and he has a good pedigree.”
A son of Yeats was a bargain in comparison at just €125,000. From another Supreme Leader mare, the classy sire is set to make quite an impact in the National Hunt sphere over the coming years. In all, Kevin Ross Bloodstock took nine lots totalling €715,000.
Aiden Murphy was another spending big at the sales. €1,212,000 for 15 lots saw him top the purchasers table. Known for his association with leading trainers such as Philip Hobbs, Murphy also picked up a Yeats gelding, this one selling for €160,000, with the agent commenting: “He is a fabulous walker and the nicest Yeats in the sale.”
Top honours went to agent Harold Kirk when purchasing a son of Robin Des Champs for the highest price at the sales since 2011. A whopping €320,000 sealed the deal after a prolonged bidding war saw him go toe to toe with David Minton, Eddie O’Leary and Henry de Bromhead. Known as a successful buyer for Willie Mullins, Kirk appeared thrilled with his latest acquisition, saying: “He is a lovely horse, a proper model, the most similar horse I've seen to Sir Des Champs. Let's hope he has an engine to go with it.”
As temperatures soar and the dust settles after the thrills of Royal Ascot, thoughts of Cheltenham, Punchestown and Aintree are rightly far from our minds. However, for those at the business end there is no time to rest. Future stars of the sport are out there and the likes of Willie Mullins, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson will be hoping to get their hands on them in the not too distant future.

 

[Old Vic]

Who did Kirk buy the Sir Des Champs for ? Ricci ?

 

[dazzler]

That sort of cash you would think its for Ricci ov.
Mullins missiles getting primed.

 

[dazzler]

The man behind the man.

We have come to learn that some of the prime movers in the Willie Mullins operation suffer dreadfully from nerves when the one week above all that the Closutton machine targets comes around.

Mullins set a new record for a trainer at the Cheltenham festival when bagging eight winners, including the first three in the Champion Hurdle and the first two in the Supreme Novices’. He is generally exceedingly tense in the build-up although there was a sense this year that he was calmer than in recent times. With good cause too obviously.

Rich Ricci is a self-confessed basket case during races. He spends most of the time staring at the ground, stealing the odd glimpse at a big screen. Stressed to the eyeballs.

Fortunately, the most important man when the tapes go up, Ruby Walsh is composure personified.

But what about Howard Kirk? You know, the soft-spoken guy with the Ulster brogue who buys the majority of the Mullins contingent? Think he’s dispassionate about it all, his job done?

Think again. He isn’t quite in the Ricci category of torment in that he can actually watch. But at Cheltenham, he suffers badly, as his judgement is tested almost every half-hour. The fear isn’t just reserved for the big stage because the first run is generally the most conclusive confirmation of Kirk’s judgement. In some way, it is there every time they go on the track.

Given that he supplies the majority of Mullins’ charges now, and before racing today, the champion trainer has had 508 runners in Ireland and Britain this season, that represents an awful lot of stomach churning.

At least his acumen in terms of racehorses is being affirmed regularly. Of Mullins’ Electric Eight, Kirk purchased seven, with the homebred Glens Melody the odd one out.

He repeatedly reduces his role in the most successful operation in racing as being minimal. He is correct in that such a large concern depends on a variety of sectors doing their jobs properly. It is why he refers to a team, which has become a very common theme amongst the leading handlers in the past decade.

You must have good horses though. It is all well and good to have owners willing to meet the asking price, patient staff to work with them, a genius trainer to facilitate them meeting their potential and one of the greatest jockeys of all time to guide them on the track. If they are not up to it though, it won’t matter.

So, sorry Harold. The role isn’t the “very small” one you describe. When what one observer labels “the secret war” is being waged, in France predominantly, but on the point-to-point fields of Ireland too, you need a canny campaigner on the ground. In Harold Kirk, Willie Mullins has just the man.

So last week?

“It’s very stressful but it has to be done” he sighs. “I am the man that supplies the horses so it’s all stress. If it all goes wrong we all go down together.

“Obviously you know they’re good horses before they get there or they wouldn’t be there but it’s a sense of relief that things go well on the day. Their first run is the really big relief because then you know what you have.

“When you buy them first and they aren’t what they’re supposed to be at the very early stage is the big disappointment. Every horse you buy, you’re hoping they’re going to be a Cheltenham horse. That doesn’t always work out. They were a nice bunch of horses but my problem is to find the next bunch.”

That process is well under way. With the likes of Andrew Bromley (for Paul Nicholls, Alan King) and David Minton (Nicky Henderson) amongst the bloodstock agents looking to tap into the same finite pool, a serious level of preparation needs to take place. Contacts need to be tapped, new ones created. Information is being gathered all the time. And the agent, as a professional, needs to create a personal impression.

“I would try and work 12 months in advance. You’re building up trust. I would be in France all year, building up trust with owners and trainers there. You’re building up trust with point-to-point owners and trainers here as well. And then you have to make a call. They’re not all expensive horses either. A lot of them are normal budget.

“In France we would buy a lot of placed horses rather than a lot of winners. We’re trying to buy potential. Most of the horses we buy in France or Ireland are three- or four-year-olds that have run maybe once. You’re hoping they mature into good horses. They all won’t but you just hope that more will than won’t.”

While Champion Hurdle king, Faugheen is a product of the point-to-point scene, Kirk places the ratio of his purchases for Mullins as being around three in every four from France. The reason for this is straightforward.

“Basically, (it’s) because they are running on proper racetracks. That’s not knocking point-to-points but there can’t be a champion there every weekend. You can evaluate racetrack form better than point-to-point form sometimes.

“But we’ve been very lucky in point-to-point form as well. You have to do a bit of both. There’s no set rules. You just have to listen to people and go and make an evaluation. It’s a big help when Willie Mullins is training them and Willie Mullins’ staff is looking after them.

“Anthony Bromley was the main man in France for Paul Nicholls. He would have bought horses that had won three or four times but you can’t do that now because the horse is being sold after running once so you’re guessing all the time. Whereas a horse could win in France and win again and you’d be nearly sure he’d be good. Now you’re taking a chance because you can’t wait that long. There’s somebody else to buy him.

“The competition… has never been as big. Never. For a small panel of horses, the competition is huge.”

So there they are; Kirk (with the considerable help of Pierre Bouillard in France), Bromley, Minton and co, creating their own little John Le Carré novel, ducking and diving, gathering intelligence, all with the aim of being one step ahead of the curve.

“Most of the time – I would say 75% of the time - we’re on the same horse. Sometimes we would go into the provinces maybe a bit more than they would do. But the biggest difference is I am working for one man, one trainer. If I go down, he goes down. If he goes down, I go down. Bloodstock agents can be buying for three or four different trainers and that can balance itself out a bit more.”

Not all the purchases revolve around eye-watering sums of money but spending €200,000 on potential is a massive responsibility. That is where the fear comes from on race day. There is massive responsibility. It is just part of the territory.

“You have to be brave. You have to make a judgement and back it. That comes down to the very good owners that we have. You can buy nothing without them. Luckily we have owners that I can make a decision very quick. The owner will back you very quick. You’re not waiting days for an owner to make a decision whether he wants or doesn’t want; because if you wait that long, the horse will be sold.”

Robin Des Champs has been a common denominator for many of the Kirk/Mullins success stories but the buyer insists that he doesn’t have a check list of requirements that each horse must meet.

“Robin Des Champs have been very lucky for me” Kirk agrees. “What am I looking for? I never have a set rule. I would buy small horses and big horses – small horses to go hurdling, big horses to go chasing. Basically you’re looking for a horse that might get better in time and a trainer that you can improve off. Also a trainer that you can trust.

“One of the biggest plusses is that Willie gives the horses a lot of time after they’ve been bought. He gives them the summer to mature. I think it’s very difficult for a horse that’s been bought in France to run within six weeks. That’s why we’re always trying to buy for next season during the season before to give the horse the chance to mature, to acclimatise and get into the new trainer’s system.”

He gets plenty wrong, he tells you openly. Mullins just tells him to get it right more often than he gets it wrong.
The pair are very good friends going back a long time, when Kirk first moved into training racehorses after starting his equine career in show jumping. He was always buying and selling and has been dealing on a full-time basis for Mullins for the past six years or so. Mullins’ trust is crucial and it is a key factor in his history-making success.

“I would have went to the sales originally with Willie and Jackie. They used to buy all the store horses and I would have watched and listened. They’re both very good judges. That was buying unraced horses. Then they got customers that could buy form horses and that’s where I came into it a little bit to do the travelling; to go to France and the point-to-points.

“Willie is training a lot of horses and he can’t do every job. He trusts his staff. He trusts the people who are buying them. He trusts his jockeys. He’s a very good delegator. Everybody has their own role to play. I’m only a very small part of it. Everybody has their own pressure but everybody has the same goal.

“It is terrifying. It is absolutely terrifying watching them hoping they’re as good as it could be or should be. It can go very, very wrong. You’re spending money for big owners. They’re putting their whole trust in you and it’s terrifying.

“Every horse I would buy is like owning it, without paying for it, because you’re buying it with that trust.”
Having the 1-2-3 in the Champion Hurdle is a unique achievement for a trainer but with Kirk having been involved in the purchases of Faugheen, Arctic Fire and Hurricane Fly, it is highly likely that he holds a special place in the annals too. It certainly represents his highlight to date.

“You can’t get much better than that, can you? In a championship race? In a Supreme Novice, buying first and second (Douvan and Shaneshill), and a second in the Gold Cup (Djakadam) is good. But if you’re involved in the buying of the first three in a Champion Hurdle, it can’t get much better than that.”

Kirk is consistently putting the building blocks in place to strengthen the empire and ensure that there is enough depth in place to stave off any fallow periods.

“The future for me is terrifying because you’re looking for the next year’s horses. You’re always thinking. You’re always worried about failure. With success comes more pressure. You’re wondering how you better things. I’ve moved on now, Cheltenham is over. I’m thinking about next year’s Cheltenham and the year after’s Cheltenham.

“But it is important to emphasise that I’m only a very small part of a big wheel. Willie Mullins is captain. He has fantastic staff, fantastic jockeys. I’m only a man that tries to put horses in the yard. I’m only a very small part of it.

“The thing for me that’s terrifying is identifying next year’s. Because everybody else is identifying them as well. The big trainers in Ireland, the big trainers in England all want to do what Willie done this year. It’s my job to try to find horses that are as good as this year’s.

“You have to try and have the owners that keep buying horses when they have good horses. Because if you lose good horses all at once and then try to find good horses to replace them, it doesn’t work. You need them coming through. But you can only do that with good owners, owners that will support you. But I suppose that comes with success as well.”

Expert that support to continue for some time then.

“THE BEST HORSE I EVER BOUGHT”
Hurricane Fly was a Listed winner on the flat when Harold Kirk saw him first. He had beaten subsequent French Derby runner-up and Champion Stakes winner, Literato and future Arlington Million victor, Spirit One when bagging that prize in Saint-Cloud.

“Hurricane Fly will never be repeated. To be involved in buying Hurricane Fly, a horse than won 22 Grade Ones, will never happen again.

“The day I went to see him, I was with a man called Richard Hobson. We actually went to buy another horse in the yard. The horse that we went to buy was lame. We had all day to spend doing nothing.

“Hurricane Fly was in the yard with this trainer (Jean-Luc Pelletan) but he wasn’t for sale. He was his best flat horse. It was only about half an hour before we left that we enquired about him seriously. We had asked was he for sale earlier in the day and we were told ‘no’. But the man who was training him was a dealing man and we got the deal done 10 minutes before we got into the taxi for the airport.

“During the day I had seen Hurricane Fly jumping. He was three-rising-four in February time. He was jumping when he was a two-year-old as the trainer was a jumping trainer as well. It was the way he jumped, as such a good flat horse, that attracted me to him. He jumped 16 hurdles and was absolutely fantastic.

“So the first time he ran, he was a handicapper. He loved to jump. And that’s what attracted me to him. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“Hurricane Fly was the one that put everything on the map. It will never be repeated in my time. He’ll go down as the best horse I ever bought or was involved in buying. And I’d say he’s very deep in Willie’s heart as well.”

 

[Old Vic]

^ nice piece :encouragement: thanks dazzler