Irish National Stud: Racing Ahead

[Wandering Eyes]

The Irish National Stud recently launched a Racing Club which will have six horses to cheer on for the 2019 season. With plans to visit big races at Cheltenham and Royal Ascot as well as taking in local tracks, INS Chief Executive Cathal Beale tells us about the club and the horses that will be running in its silks.

 TDN: Cathal tell us about the new INS Racing Club.

Cathal Beale: We launched a new INS racing venture last year called INS Racing. It’s something really to get people racing and to encourage people to go, so as part of your membership you get to go racing for free which is the biggest selling point I think from our prospective. We’re delighted that we’ve got plenty of members already with people buying it as Christmas presents and so on. It’s to get people to different tracks around the country and to enjoy the racing and to have a good experience, and a good day out, but also to be following horses with a good chance of winning that give us a chance to get to those premier handicaps but also that can run in stakes races.

TDN: How many horses have you got racing for the club?

CB: We have six horses in training, six quality horses that can get us to the big days at Cheltenham hopefully and also Royal Ascot and The Curragh, some of the big days in Ireland as well. But not just that, it’s to get us to the smaller tracks around the country and to show people both sides of the racing game.

Lethal Promise (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) is obviously the flag-bearer having won a listed race last year, and the target will be Royal Ascot. We’ve also got Divine Approach (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) who’s now rated 80 and Twenty Times (Ire) (Dream Ahead) who’s rated in the high 80s as well. So, fillies with a good chance of running in stakes races as the year goes on.

Then we have a 3-year-old Ruler of the World (Ire) filly out of Katch Me Katie (GB) in training with Dermot Weld and a 2-year-old by Free Eagle (Ire) which we’re very excited to have. He looks like a sharp colt, a half to lots of 2-year-old winners and he’s in training with Patrick Prendergast so that’s very exciting. And then at the other end of the spectrum we have a National Hunt horse called Thunder and Roses (Ire) (Presenting {GB}).

TDN: Thunder and Roses is an interesting horse to have. Tell us about him.

CB: Thunder and Roses is a Grand National winner. He ran in his first race for the club in a Boulta point-to-point. So again, it’s getting people to see a different side that they may not necessarily have seen before. The plan is to qualify him for the Fox hunters at Cheltenham or Aintree but, maybe, he could go to the Irish National again. He could go to Punchestown for something like the Latouche either. The options are very open for him and he’s a lot of fun.

TDN: You mentioned that Lethal Promise is the flag-bearer for the Club. What are her plans this year?

CB: She’s gone back into training with Willie McCreery. She’s had a lovely break, she’s really put on some nice condition and looks really well. Obviously the initial target, or the big target would be the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. Willie will work out a program and probably work his way back from there, maybe one or two runs beforehand. But, until she tells us otherwise, we’ll certainly be aiming for the Commonwealth Cup. We’re going to aim high with her anyway and see how we get on. Her 2-year-old form has worked out really well. She’s a very fast filly. She’s won her listed race. So, she’s done everything from our perspective already as a 2-year-old.

TDN: You recently purchased another filly for the club. She had a rather famous owner before you bought her?

CB: It pains me to say it as an Arsenal fan, but we bought a horse, called Twenty Times from Sir Alex Ferguson. She’s a lovely filly by Dream Ahead who will end up in our broodmare band. She’s already rated very high, with previous trainer Richard Hughes who did a lovely job with her. She’s already done what she needs to do to become a broodmare but we’d obviously like to keep her running in handicaps and possibly sneak a bit of black-type with her. She’ll go to Joe Murphy, who’s a really good trainer of fillies. That’ll be the plan with her, to run in some handicaps, see where we are with her and maybe sneak a bit of black-type.

TDN: What are the major benefits of joining INS Racing?

CB: There are lots of perks attached to the club. So, obviously every day we have a runner in Ireland everybody gets in for free. I think that’s the fundamental thing, that when you go racing we can guarantee that you can get in and see your horse. After that we put on seminars and club days such as at the recent Irish Stallion Trail and everybody gets a membership to the National Stud as well.

We also have a share of the prize money, so, everybody gets a little piece of the pie for their investment. It’s only €399 and we like to think that on the day you sign-up you pretty much get your money back in terms of the value created by the club. And obviously just the fact that we’re able to cheer on six horses in training, all of whom have a good chance of, not just picking up races, but bringing us to some really big days across the racing calendar, is a very exciting thing for us.

I think it’s putting people together of a like mind. Getting people who are interested in racing together and maybe building friendships with our existing racing and breeding club. We want people to come in, have a good experience, have a great value experience, and hopefully get bitten by the racing bug to take the next step if that’s what they choose.

{"id":3,"instanceName":"Articles No Playlist","videos":[{"videoType":"HTML5","title":"Irish National Stud: Racing Ahead","description":"","info":"","thumbImg":"","mp4":"https://player.vimeo.com/external/316284999.sd.mp4?s=cabf02ee68465ad33147c6198cc29e088be6f4ae&profile_id=165","enable_mp4_download":"no","prerollAD":"yes","prerollGotoLink":"prerollGotoLink","preroll_mp4_title":"preroll_mp4_title","preroll_mp4":"https://player.vimeo.com/external/314514672.sd.mp4?s=a306d293085e5b37b7a8153e8ad79633640c115a&profile_id=165","prerollSkipTimer":"5","midrollAD":"no","midrollAD_displayTime":"midrollAD_displayTime","midrollGotoLink":"midrollGotoLink","midroll_mp4":"midroll_mp4","midrollSkipTimer":"midrollSkipTimer","postrollAD":"no","postrollGotoLink":"postrollGotoLink","postroll_mp4":"postroll_mp4","postrollSkipTimer":"postrollSkipTimer","popupAdShow":"no","popupImg":"popupImg","popupAdStartTime":"popupAdStartTime","popupAdEndTime":"popupAdEndTime","popupAdGoToLink":"popupAdGoToLink"}],"instanceTheme":"light","playerLayout":"fitToContainer","videoPlayerWidth":720,"videoPlayerHeight":405,"videoRatio":1.7777777777778,"videoRatioStretch":true,"videoPlayerShadow":"effect1","colorAccent":"#000000","posterImg":"","posterImgOnVideoFinish":"","logoShow":"No","logoPath":"","logoPosition":"bottom-right","logoClickable":"No","logoGoToLink":"","allowSkipAd":true,"advertisementTitle":"Ad","skipAdvertisementText":"Skip Ad","skipAdText":"You can skip this ad in","playBtnTooltipTxt":"Play","pauseBtnTooltipTxt":"Pause","rewindBtnTooltipTxt":"Rewind","downloadVideoBtnTooltipTxt":"Download video","qualityBtnOpenedTooltipTxt":"Close settings","qualityBtnClosedTooltipTxt":"Settings","muteBtnTooltipTxt":"Mute","unmuteBtnTooltipTxt":"Unmute","fullscreenBtnTooltipTxt":"Fullscreen","exitFullscreenBtnTooltipTxt":"Exit fullscreen","infoBtnTooltipTxt":"Show info","embedBtnTooltipTxt":"Embed","shareBtnTooltipTxt":"Share","volumeTooltipTxt":"Volume","playlistBtnClosedTooltipTxt":"Show playlist","playlistBtnOpenedTooltipTxt":"Hide playlist","facebookBtnTooltipTxt":"Share on Facebook","twitterBtnTooltipTxt":"Share on Twitter","googlePlusBtnTooltipTxt":"Share on Google+","lastBtnTooltipTxt":"Go to last video","firstBtnTooltipTxt":"Go to first video","nextBtnTooltipTxt":"Play next video","previousBtnTooltipTxt":"Play previous video","shuffleBtnOnTooltipTxt":"Shuffle on","shuffleBtnOffTooltipTxt":"Shuffle off","nowPlayingTooltipTxt":"NOW PLAYING","embedWindowTitle1":"SHARE THIS PLAYER:","embedWindowTitle2":"EMBED THIS VIDEO IN YOUR SITE:","embedWindowTitle3":"SHARE LINK TO THIS PLAYER:","lightBox":false,"lightBoxAutoplay":false,"lightBoxThumbnail":"","lightBoxThumbnailWidth":400,"lightBoxThumbnailHeight":220,"lightBoxCloseOnOutsideClick":true,"onFinish":"Play next video","autoplay":false,"loadRandomVideoOnStart":"No","shuffle":"No","playlist":"Off","playlistBehaviourOnPageload":"opened (default)","playlistScrollType":"light","preloadSelfHosted":"none","hideVideoSource":true,"showAllControls":true,"rightClickMenu":true,"autohideControls":2,"hideControlsOnMouseOut":"No","nowPlayingText":"Yes","infoShow":"No","shareShow":"No","facebookShow":"No","twitterShow":"No","mailShow":"No","facebookShareName":"","facebookShareLink":"","facebookShareDescription":"","facebookSharePicture":"","twitterText":"","twitterLink":"","twitterHashtags":"","twitterVia":"","googlePlus":"","embedShow":"No","embedCodeSrc":"","embedCodeW":720,"embedCodeH":405,"embedShareLink":"","youtubeControls":"custom controls","youtubeSkin":"dark","youtubeColor":"red","youtubeQuality":"default","youtubeShowRelatedVideos":"Yes","vimeoColor":"00adef","showGlobalPrerollAds":false,"globalPrerollAds":"url1;url2;url3;url4;url5","globalPrerollAdsSkipTimer":5,"globalPrerollAdsGotoLink":"","videoType":"HTML5 (self-hosted)","submit":"Save Changes","rootFolder":"http:\/\/wp.tdn.pmadv.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/Elite-video-player\/"}

View the full article