Goffs Tradition For Pipe View Stud

[Wandering Eyes]

The Kilkenny-based Pipe View Stud has been selling foals at Goffs for a number of years now and the farm, owned by Michael Phelan, returns to Kildare Paddocks with a draft of 15 foals to offer this week. The consignment includes foals by a mix of new and established sires, and the TDN’s Daithi Harvey got the lowdown from Phelan about the history of the farm and what his hopes are for his consignment in Part I of the Goffs November Foal Sale.

TDN: Pipe View Stud has been a regular vendor at the foal sale at Goffs for a long time now. Can you tell us a bit about the farm and the activities you focus on?

MP: Pipe View Stud is our own private farm that I run with my wife Brigid. We keep a mix of horses for both flat and National Hunt, but the emphasis is on the flat side of things. We keep around 25 mares on average and we’ve been selling at Goffs for around 20 years at this stage. We try and sell the stock as foals if we can, but we have no problem carrying them to the yearling stage also, or even putting the odd one in training.

TDN: You offer foals at Goffs by both established and first-crop stallions. Do you tend to focus on a number of newly retired stallions for some of your mares each year?

MP: We try and focus on a sire that would suit each mare, either by conformation or by pedigree. Obviously we would love to use more established sires than we do but those stallions are often too expensive for certain mares so we generally mix it up between the two. We would strive to get to the point where we could use established sires as the norm.

TDN: Ballylinch stallion New Bay (GB) got off to a good start in the sales ring when one of his first foals offered to the market topped the recent Flat Foal Sale at Tattersalls Ireland. What can you tell us about the two colts by the sire you offer this week?

MP: They are two nice foals. The colt out of Stella Del Mattino (Golden Gear) (lot 323) should be popular. The mare has already bred a very good horse called Buckstay (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}) and although he never got black-type he was rated 110 at one stage. The other colt, lot 548, is also a nice sort. His half-brother by Free Eagle (Ire) made 60,000gns as a yearling at Tattersalls last month and the mare is back in foal to Lope De Vega (Ire). We’ve been dealing with Ballylinch Stud for a long time now and they have built up a great roster of stallions. We actually bred Lawman’s first-ever winner and we sold Lope De Vega’s first foal that was sold at auction.

TDN: Showcasing (GB) has established himself as a top-class sire the hard way. You must be pleased to be offering two colt foals while the stallion is doing so well?

MP: We’re delighted to be offering them (lots 299 and 554) and the stallion has had another fantastic year. We do quite a bit of business with Whitsbury Manor Stud; we’ve bred to nearly all their stallions in the past and have mares back in foal to Showcasing this year. We also have two foals by Adaay (Ire), a filly, lot 146 and a colt, lot 278. We like the colt a lot and judging by what we’ve seen from his first crop so far Adaay looks to be stamping his stock well.

TDN: Lope De Vega (Ire) embarks covering in 2019 at a career-high fee of €80,000. With the stallion represented recently by a superstar filly in Newspaperofrecord (Ire), you must have high hopes for your filly foal? (lot 718).

MP: We do indeed. She is a very nice filly, plenty of scope with a great walk and the page is quite lively at the moment. A Kodiac (GB) filly out of the dam’s half-sister Need You Now (Ire) (Kheleyf) made 300,000gns as a yearling at Tattersalls last month.

TDN: The mare Iamfine (Ire) (Whipper) has been a good earner for you at Goffs with her Zoffany (Ire) colt making €150,000 in 2015. You return with a full-brother (lot 722) to that colt, who is now called Mushtaq (Ire) and a three-time winner for Al Shaqab Racing. What are your thoughts on him?

MP: He is a good sort and the full-brother has been retained by Richard Hannon after being entered in the HIT sales so he obviously thinks there is further progress in him. The mare has been a great servant to us and we hope that continues this week.

TDN: Gleneagles (Ire) is a stallion whose yearlings were very popular in the sales in the autumn. Your colt by him (lot 560) is only the dam Purple Sage’s second foal as a 12-year-old. What can you tell us about the foal and his dam’s history?

MP: The mare was out in Dubai where she was stakes-placed but she was out of the system for a while and when she came back to England we bought her privately. We covered her first with Make Believe (Fr) and that colt made €55,000 as a foal and she then had this colt by Gleneagles. She’s a Danehill Dancer (Ire) mare with a proper page so she has every chance of making up for lost time.

TDN: You also offer stock by Dawn Approach (Ire), Belardo (Ire), Fascinating Rock (Ire), Mehmas (Ire), Elzaam (Aus) and the ever- reliable Kodiac (GB). What can you tell us about some of those?

MP: We have a lovely Elzaam colt (lot 418). He is a low-priced sire but he gets great-looking stock and you’d have to hope that they could do well on the track in time. We have a very nice filly by Belardo (Ire). She is lot 750 and I think she is an outstanding filly. She is out of Ludynosa, a Cadeaux Genereux mare who has already bred two black-type horses and we really like her. The Dawn Approach filly (lot 620) has a lovely page. She is out of a full-sister to Observatory and the dam has already produced a stakes winner in Mount Logan (Ire). That horse is by New Approach (Ire) so that is why we tried her with Dawn Approach. She is a nice filly, the sire has a top juvenile (Madhmoon {Ire}) to work for him next year so that should help and she has the pedigree to make a broodmare in the future. The Kodiac (lot 766) is out of a well-bred Manduro (Ger) mare and it’s hard to go too far wrong with a Kodiac.

TDN: You had a good sale at Goffs in 2015 when you sold three six-figure foals. How hopeful are you of matching or bettering that score this week?

MP: Looking at the stock we have going to Goffs I am happy that we have some very nice foals on offer but a lot will depend on how trade fares out. That will be the determining factor in how we get on, so I hope it works out. We’ve only entered the best foals we have so hopefully that will count for something.

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