“The Farms Are Resilient” – Studs To Brave Icy Weather For ITM Stallion Trail

[Wandering Eyes]

Irish Thoroughbred Marketing boss Charles O'Neill has admitted that the build-up to this year's Stallion Trail has been made “really tough” by the icy conditions that have wreaked havoc across the country and forced Coolmore Stud, one of the main attractions for many people who were hoping to attend, to pull out from what is now a trimmed-down version of the two-day showpiece. 

Roughly 30 stud farms will open the doors to racing fans and enthusiasts alike on Friday and Saturday, with Kedrah House Stud, Annshoon Stud and Coolagown Stud [on Friday] joining Coolmore in being forced to sit out the Stallion Trail because of the weather. 

“It's been really tough,” O'Neill explained on Thursday. “The weather has caused a little bit of havoc this week, with the likes of Coolmore being forced to pull out, but Grange Stud is back in now, which is great news. 

“The farms are resilient and hopefully it will be a good weekend. The only farms that will not be open are Coolmore Stud, Kedrah House Stud and Castlehyde Stud. Coolagown Stud is only closing on Friday. So we are expecting over 30 farms to be open over the course of the weekend.”

He added, “We had a group of 75 people arrive from Eastern Europe on Wednesday night. They started touring around some of the farms today [Thursday] and they will be at Dundalk races on Friday night as well. There are quite a few British and people from further across Europe coming over as well.”

Kildangan Stud, which boasts one of the most glittering rosters anywhere in the world, with Blue Point (Ire), Ghaiyyath (Ire), Night Of Thunder (Ire) and more based at the County Kildare operation, is open to the public on Friday and Saturday. However, nominations manager Eamon Molony admits that the stud expects to see a much bigger crowd for the stallion shows on Saturday, where the weather is expected to pick up. 

Night Of Thunder | Darley Stallions

He said, “Friday is harder to predict than Saturday because the morning temperatures on Friday are said to be quite low. But we're ready and are planning our first show for 11am. We're quite hopeful that, weather wise, Saturday will be much better. I'm guessing we won't see as many people out and about on Friday compared to other years but we're hoping for a big crowd on Saturday.”

One of the main attractions of the Stallion Trail is that it provides people with the opportunity to get the first glimpse at some of the newbies at stud. At Ballyhane Stud, Group 2-winning juvenile Sakheer (Ire) is new to the roster while Ballylinch Stud has French Derby hero Look De Vega (Fr), the Irish National Stud has Shouldvebeenaring (GB), while Tally-Ho Stud welcomes Big Evs (Ire), Bucanero Fuerte (GB) and King Of Steel. Starfield Stud has landed Aesop's Fables (Ire), Yeomanstown Stud will show off Mill Stream (Ire) while Springfield House Stud has added Go Bears Go (Ire) to the roster.

Meanwhile, on the National Hunt side of things, Capital Stud will provide many people with the opportunity to catch the first peak at the Martinborough (Jpn), sire of the highly-touted Willie Mullins-trained Triumph Hurdle winner Majborough (Fr).

“We're getting ready to go and are hoping it doesn't freeze too hard tonight,” Capital Stud's Ger O'Neill said. “The plan is to open our doors tomorrow, and hopefully everyone will be able to have a good day out regardless of the weather. A few people have rang ahead but, to be honest, we're expecting more of a crowd on Saturday compared to Friday with the way the weather is. 

“A lot of people want to come and see Martinborough. He seems to be going down well and he's had a good couple of winners in France over the past week or so. It looks as if everything is going his way and the horse of Willie Mullins' [Majborough] looks very exciting as well so lots of people want to come and get a look at him.”

He added, “The stallion trail is a good initiative. We've already had a lot of breeders call to see the stallions this year but, for the fella down the road who might just want to poke his head in and see what we do here, it's brilliant. That's not to say you don't do business during the stallion trail, because you do, but it's more about opening your doors and welcoming people. If that transpires to getting mares booked into any of the stallions, even better.”

Meanwhile, just a few miles down the road in County Kilkenny, Michael Shefflin of Annshoon Stud, which is now the new home to Twilight Son (GB), was the latest man to be forced to pull out of the Stallion Trail because of a persistent covering of snow at his base.

He said on Thursday evening, “It's disappointing, because we were really looking forward to the weekend but there's nothing we can do. While Twilight Son is not exactly new, he's new to Ireland, and we hope he can be popular. His record speaks for itself. We actually bought him on behalf of a client to go to Turkey but, because so many people expressed an interest in using him in Ireland, we said we'd give him a chance here. The weather is a bit of a sickener but our doors will be open for business when it clears and we'd invite everyone to come and see him.”

Coolmore Stud has already rescheduled its open day for Saturday, January 18, from 10am to 3pm where Auguste Rodin (Ire), City Of Troy, Henry Longfellow (Ire) and more will be on show. A full list of the farms partaking in the Irish Stallion Trail on Friday and Saturday can be found here – https://www.itm.ie/Breeding/ITM-Irish-Stallion-Trail.

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