MV Magnier: ‘Without Classic Stallions, How Can You Breed the Next Classic Winner?’

[Wandering Eyes]

Fifty years ago this spring John Magnier moved into Coolmore Stud ahead of the the now infamous and audacious annual raids on the Kentucky yearling market. At the Keeneland July Select Sale of 1975, Magnier, along with the esteemed trainer Vincent O'Brien and key ally Robert Sangster, started their recruitment drive of what O'Brien described as “baby stallions”. 

In his biography, O'Brien stated, “We would try and turn the tide: we would organise a syndicate to buy yearlings which I would train, and from which we could make our own stallions.”

Neither O'Brien nor his soon-to-be son-in-law Magnier was new to the stud business. The Magnier family was already renowned in National Hunt breeding through its ownership of Grange Stud and the successful stallion Cottage. By 1973, Magnier had set up Castlehyde Stud and stood three stallions across the two farms. 

O'Brien, in turn, had founded Ballydoyle Stud in 1952 and later Longfield and Lyonstown were added to the portfolio along with a share in Coolmore with Tim Vigors, whose family had owned the property since 1945. As Vigors departed Ireland, Magnier, by then engaged to O'Brien's daughter, Sue, was installed as the manager at Coolmore which was then merged with Castlehyde. So began a formidable operation which would change the face of the stallion business. 

For all the notable training achievements of O'Brien, and later his unrelated namesake and successor at Ballydoyle, Aidan O'Brien, perhaps none is more important in the career of either man than their respective records in the Derby. Vincent won the great race six times between 1962 and 1982, while last year Aidan extended his record to ten.

My father has always believed in tradition and in particular in the Epsom Derby – MV Magnier

Vincent O'Brien's particular focus on the offspring of Northern Dancer among the stallions he most admired on his North American jaunts is understandable. After all, the great sire had already delivered, in his second crop, Nijinsky, who remains the last horse to win the British Triple Crown, in 1970. Thereafter, The Minstrel, bought on that first foray of the Coolmore syndicate back in 1975, triumphed at Epsom, followed by Nijinsky's son Golden Fleece. Northern Dancer has not just a lingering influence on the success of Coolmore; his bloodlines now dominate the breed. 

For Coolmore in particular this has been largely through his son Sadler's Wells, bred by Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud and trained by Vincent O'Brien to win the Irish 2,000 Guineas, Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes of 1984 before taking up residence at Coolmore a decade after Magnier had arrived there. Their names will be forever entwined in bloodstock lore. 

Fourteen sires' championships of Britain and Ireland would follow and by the time Sadler's Wells died in April 2011 at the age of 30, his son Galileo (Ire) had already been champion sire twice. He would go on to add another 10 championships to his record.

 

Six-time Group/Grade 1 winner Auguste Rodin at Coolmore | Racingfotos

 

Half a century later, the Derby still looms large in the Coolmore stallion yard. Australia (GB), himself a son of Galileo and the brilliant Ouija Board (GB), is stabled alongside Camelot (GB), who was the European champion sire of 2024 and is by Sadler's Wells's son Montjeu (Ire), who made a significant mark on the Derby roll of honour despite dying relatively young. 

It seems almost churlish to stride on past two such good horses, but on a soggy morning in February with the covering season now in swing, the current head of Coolmore in Ireland, MV Magnier, is on a mission to show the three newest recruits to the stallion yard. It is almost certainly unprecedented to have two consecutive winners of the Derby retiring to the same stud in the same year, but here they are: Auguste Rodin (Ire) and City Of Troy, whose achievements run way beyond just that one Classic but who, in delivering at Epsom, continued an essential Magnier tenet.

“My father has always believed in tradition and in particular in the Epsom Derby,” says Magnier as he watches City Of Troy stride out across the stallion yard. The son of Justify now lives in the stable – more akin to a bespoke stallion cottage – once occupied by Danehill, whose own legacy at Coolmore and beyond should not be overlooked. 

Quizzed as to whether his team now finds it a harder 'sell' to stand Derby winners, he replies simply, “It has always been the race to win. Without Classic-type stallions, how can you breed the next Classic winner?”

It's a fair point. Happily, others agree.

“The response from breeders to both City of Troy and Auguste Rodin has been extremely positive so through the support of our clients along with plenty from our own broodmare band, they'll both be given the best possible chance to succeed,” he adds. 

“The Epsom Derby provides the ultimate test for the Thoroughbred, requiring a blend of speed, stamina, balance, conformation and temperament, so to have two winners of it retiring in the same year is pretty extraordinary. The fact that they are both Group 1-winning two-year-olds by top stallions out of great racemares from exceptional families makes it all the better.”

We can add the name Henry Longfellow (Ire), the third retiree, to the latter comment. The homebred winner of the G1 National Stakes is by Dubawi (Ire) but, as ever, Galileo isn't too far from the reckoning. In fact, he appears as the broodmare sire of all three new stallions at Coolmore, their respective dams Rhododendron (Ire), Together Forever (Ire) and Minding (Ire) united further still in that they were all winners of the Fillies' Mile among their Group 1 triumphs. 

 

John and MV Magnier at Tattersalls | Racingfotos

 

Of course, with an enviable supply of high-class racemares by Galileo, comes the decision of where to send them once they retire to stud. Together Forever has resided at Coolmore's American base throughout the early years of her stud career, visiting War Front at Claiborne and the Ashford Stud stallions Uncle Mo and Triple Crown winner Justify. Her second tryst with the latter resulted in City Of Troy.

“Aidan [O'Brien] certainly hasn't hidden his admiration for Justify as a sire and I suppose his success shouldn't have come as a huge surprise as he was a phenomenal racehorse by a very good sire in Scat Daddy, who looked set to become one of the dominant stallions in North America before his untimely passing,” says Magnier. 

Coolmore has long had an association with the Yoshida family's Shadai stallion operation in Japan, and their patronage of the late Deep Impact (Jpn) has resulted in the Classic winners Snowfall (Jpn), Saxon Warrior (Jpn), Fancy Blue (Ire) and now Auguste Rodin. 

He continues, “Obviously we haven't seen too many Deep Impacts in Europe but Study Of Man has made a very promising start and Kizuna was crowned champion sire in Japan last year. Sunday Silence and Deep Impact have been very much like Sadler's Wells and Galileo here in Europe so maybe Auguste Rodin will be the Frankel.”

The global market for high-class middle-distance horses is stronger than it has ever been – MV Magnier

Coolmore's commercial arm is more than just about selling stallion nominations. Each year a number of horses that don't quite reach the top level will be sold on. Prague (Ire), who won last year's G2 Joel Stakes for Dylan Cunha, is one such example, and others go farther afield. 

“The global market for high-class middle-distance horses is stronger than it has ever been,” Magnier avers. “Demand for the Classic-type horse from Ballydoyle is very strong as that's where the big prize-money is, be it in Australia, the USA, Hong Kong or the Middle East. 

“Under Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Hong Kong has seen a shift in their racing programme which sees it focus less on short distances. Massive Sovereign, a son of No Nay Never, was an impressive winner of last year's Hong Kong Derby on only his second start after being sold from Ballydoyle. Ron Winchell has put on the Nashville Derby, worth $2.5 million, in Kentucky Downs. It is remarkable what he and Mark Falcone have done there.”

He adds, “David Redvers alluded to it in an interview last year, that from an owners' and trainers' point of view the commercial stallion is actually the one that gets middle-distance horses who command a serious resale price. Likewise at Tattersalls Book 1, the big demand is for the horse with Classic potential. Even guys like Paul McCartan, who used to specialise in two-year-old and sprinter-type sires, is now pinhooking foals by the likes of Camelot.”

There's a cutting framed on the wall at Coolmore's stud office which features an article on Vincent O'Brien with the headline 'Quiet man who let his horses do the talking'. John Magnier is not one for regular public pronouncements either, and the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree when it comes to the youngest of his three sons. The expansion of the Coolmore operation has coincided with the growth of the family. MV, 39, has two sisters, Kate Wachman (wife of former trainer David) and Sam Pearson, as well as two brothers, Tom, who runs Coolmore's Australian operation, and JP, a former amateur jockey who works in finance in London. So was MV ever tempted, like JP, by life in a different field? 

“We were always brought up with it and…was it always something I was going to do? To be honest, I wasn't much good at school or anything like that,” he says, smiling but doubtless wishing to be back out in the yard looking at stallions rather than being subjected to a gentle grilling. 

How about those winners he rode, including three in one week at the Galway Festival of 2004?

“Yeah, but Aidan O'Brien trained them,” he says, laughing now. “If I didn't win on them, they were going to be asking a lot of questions. It's actually when Dad realised how good Aidan O'Brien was.”

He continues, “Mum and Dad always led us down the right path and I suppose I was always interested in it from a young age, and so were all of us really. And we've been lucky over the last 10 or 20 years with the horses and the results, and hopefully it'll continue.”

That continued success owes plenty to the loyalty of many long-term members of the Coolmore team, a theme which was highlighted recently in a fascinating behind-the-scenes piece by Martin Stevens which featured many of the folk who have worked with the horses from their early years before welcoming the best of them back to the stallion yard. To the outside world, there is a raft of familiar faces in the throng at the sales and races; trusted allies of the Magnier family, just as Sangster was at the outset along with the likes of Tom Cooper and Billy McDonald.

“It's rare, isn't it?” Magnier suggests at the mention of the longevity of the Coolmore team, which is regularly bolstered with members of the next generation.

“We've a load of young people around here and a lot of older people that are very good friends of ours, too. We all enjoy working together. And it's not a day's work when you come in here really. Everybody working here gets along and there's no hierarchy. It's a true working place and the whole team is close, be it here, America, or Australia. I think that's very important in an organisation. 

“And in America and Australia, all of those guys started here. We all know them really well and we're all friends.”

 

City Of Troy, co-top-rated horse in the world in 2024 | Emma Berry

 

The foundations remain strong then, and a solid base is undoubtedly important in a business where the slings and arrows are as prevalent as trophies and accolades. While it takes an above-average colt to earn a place at stud in the first place, time and again we have seen sires emerge and thrive from unheralded sources. Pedigree and performance are two good things to have on your side, however, and plainly Coolmore's Irish team will be hoping that these two Derby winners from lines that have worked well elsewhere can lay down roots in Tipperary. 

Magnier certainly believes so. “Two minutes after Auguste Rodin won the Derby, Dad rang up and said, 'This is the most important thing that has happened to Coolmore since Galileo won it.' He's such a well-bred horse, by Deep Impact, out of a champion, he won the Derby so impressively, was a Group 1-winning two-year-old, and he kept going. He had the odd little blip, but plenty of them do,” he says. 

“The big thing I remember is that Derrick Smith saw Galileo win the Epsom Derby and he said, 'I want to get in this game.' And that's how he got in it, and that's why he got in it. It was the Epsom Derby that brought Derrick Smith in. There wasn't anything else.

“Going back to when Michael Tabor came in – his first horse was a Kentucky Derby winner [Thunder Gulch] and then he just got the bug. And, ever since, that's all he wants to do is win the Kentucky Derby again. It's all about those Classic races. It's the aim of the game really.”

Indeed, from the Kentucky Derby winner Northern Dancer so much has sprung, and Magnier is quick to acknowledge the transatlantic heritage of Coolmore.

“It's all because of the American horse really,” he says. “What my grandfather did with Northern Dancer – through Nijinsky, Sadler's Wells, so on – that's how we got Galileo. And Danzig with Danehill; Storm Cat then Hennessy to Scat Daddy, now to Justify. That's what this place has been built on and what Ballydoyle has been built on. Be it American Pharoah or Justify or the next good horse over there, we will give them the chance to work on both sides of the pond and try and create the next Northern Dancer.”

He points to the success of Wathnan Racing's Norfolk Stakes winner Shareholder, by Taylor Made Farm's swiftly rising stallion Not This Time, as an example of the potential for dual-surface thinking. Not This Time is himself by Giant's Causeway, the son of Storm Cat who did so much for Ballydoyle on the turf and for Coolmore at stud. And he went agonisingly close to becoming the perfect crossover racehorse when losing out on the Breeders' Cup Classic by a neck to Tiznow. The latest to attempt what for the European arm of Coolmore has become something of a holy grail was of course City Of Troy, whose own attempt on the Classic fell short when he failed to act on the dirt of Del Mar last November. 

“One thing we would never do is die wondering,” says Magnier of this particular quest. “It has nearly worked three times, with Giant's Causeway, Declaration Of War, and Henrythenavigator, even though that was on Tapeta. Andre Fabre did it [with Arcangues]. So we'll definitely keep trying.”

In Coolmore's private Legacy Gallery – a boutique museum that provides a history lesson more riveting than any that could be taught in the classroom – stands the taxidermied Sadler's Wells, so skilfully preserved that it is hard not to imagine that his head might yet turn or tail flick. Soon he will be joined there by his most celebrated son, Galileo. 

The human legacy means that Magnier has been bestowed with the names Michael Vincent in honour of his grandfather and passed a baton, which must weigh heavy in his hand at times, to continue the work of his two forebears, both towering  figures in the sport. 

Of O'Brien, who is widely considered to be the greatest trainer of all time, he says, “Well, I just feel sorry for him that I got named after him. He was an incredible man, what he did, with the National Hunt, and when he started flying those horses from Ballydoyle in a matchbox. The foresight that he had was incredible.” 

He adds with a grin, “And I think, everything good that came of us came from our mother, I'd say. It wasn't Dad at all.”

Magnier continues, “With Pops, Dad would be telling stories about their days in Keeneland and [Vincent] would just look at horses by certain stallions and he wouldn't look at anything else. He wouldn't go to other farms, he'd just look straight down the barrel with blinkers on. He would stare at the yearlings for 20 minutes, he wouldn't look left or right. He stuck to his plan and the plan worked.”

It is hard to imagine that even a trio with the horsemanship of O'Brien, business nous of Magnier, and enthusiasm and largesse of Sangster could have imagined that their plan would work so spectacularly. Fifty years after it was deployed, it has played a significant role in propelling Ireland to the forefront of the global Thoroughbred business, with Coolmore its strongest brand, recognisable and revered by racing fans the world over.

 

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