Longways Stables Building On Success

[Wandering Eyes]

Selling a subsequent Royal Ascot winner is always a great boost to a breeze up business, and when Le Brivido (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) won the G3 Jersey S. at the Royal Meeting last year it was just the kind of result Mick Murphy and Sarah O’Connell were craving to give their burgeoning breeze up operation some extra gravitas. The pair has been preparing and consigning 2-year-olds for a number of years under their Longways Stables banner and the fruits of their labour and racecourse success were borne out at Arqana earlier this month when they sold another son of Siyouni for €385,000. The colt was a brave 100,000 gns pinhook at Tattersalls last October and Murphy said he felt the success of Le Brivido was certainly a factor in the generous return seven months later.

“We had some very nice horses at Arqana and they breezed exceptionally well,” he said. “Le Brivido winning last year was a big help, it generates extra interest in your draft and then if you have quality horses people have that extra confidence to purchase from you.”

While Arqana was great for Murphy and O’Connell, much like a jockey or trainer who are deemed only as good as their last winner, pressure is back on for the next and final breeze up sale of the season at Goresbridge this week. Longways will present six 2-year-olds to showcase themselves up the straight at Gowran Park on Thursday ahead of the auction on Friday and the couple are hoping to finish up the season on a good note.

“It’s been a long season but a rewarding one. As everyone knows the market isn’t straightforward but there is still demand for a nice horse so fingers crossed that carries through to this week. It’s a big catalogue so the clearance rate will be tested. However, racecourse results this year are again proving that breeze up sales are a source for top-class horses. The filly that won the French Guineas [Teppal (Fr) (Camacho {GB}] is just one prime example. Con Marnane sold her for €105,000 and she is worth many multiples of that now.”

Longways sold a Super Saver colt at Arqana for €120,000, having purchased him for $35,000 at Keeneland last September, and Murphy said he is hoping some other acquisitions from that trip will fare similarly this week. “We have a very nice Noble Mission colt out of a Rahy mare (lot 35). He goes very well, the dam is a half-sister to three stakes horses so he has plenty going for him. He is nice individual and Noble Mission had his first winner from his first runner so they can’t knock the sire. The Data Link [lot 68], she’s sharp and she’s a fast filly. She is out of a mare who won a listed race as a 2-year-old and has already bred two winners so she won’t be long coming to hand.”

Murphy and O’Connell don’t mind taking a chance on first season sires and the trio of freshmen that represent them this week have certainly made a positive impression at this early stage of the season. They offer a filly by Bungle Inthejungle (GB) as lot 98 and a colt by Charm Spirit (Ire) as lot 134. Both stallions are off the blocks early with winners and O’Connell said, “We like first-season sires, if they click you can get quite lucky. Obviously it’s a chance you take but thankfully it’s a strategy that has worked out fairly well for us so far. Charm Spirit’s first winner won by five lengths and then he had another winner two days later. Our breezer is out of a black-type mare and goes well so he should be popular.”

Several vendors have already hailed Goresbridge as their favourite breeze-up sale of the year; some reckon it’s because it’s the season finale while others maintain it’s the quality of the Guinness in the bar. Whatever the reason, the sale has only gone one way in the last 10 years and that is up, and while someday that progress may halt, Murphy and O’Connell said they believe it won’t be for lack of effort from those who run and market it. “Martin [Donohoe] and ITM do a very good job promoting the sale,” Murphy said. “They usually manage to get a decent clearance rate and the quality of horse has risen year-on-year. They look after people really well and the service they provide on sale day is second to none.”

While many breeze-up vendors may take a well-earned break next week, Murphy and O’Connell cannot afford that luxury as they are in the throes of moving their whole operation from Tipperary to Waterford in what is an exciting project that should stand their business in great stead in the future. “We’ve sold Longways and we will be moving to Ardmore in county Waterford to Sarah’s home-place. We’re building a new purpose-built yard and putting in a breeze-up gallop so we will have everything we need on site,” Murphy said. The couple are under pressure to have everything in place in less than three months’ time when the other side to their business kicks back into gear.

“It’s all systems go to be ready for early August. That’s usually when we take in a batch of horses for pre-training every year. We pre-train mostly for Willie Mullins and also a few for Henry De Bromhead and we could have up to 20 at any given time for them between August and May. Historically, breaking and pre-training was the major part of our business and something we are privileged to be doing but the last few years the breeze-up operation has grown and it’s now about 50:50 between the both,” Murphy said.

While a change of address is in the offing there will be no branding change when it comes to the team selling breeze-up horses in the future. “The breezers will continue to be sold under Longways, I’ve spent too long building up that name to let it go and it’s also been lucky for us. We sell yearlings and National Hunt stores as well and they will be sold under the name Ardo Farm, which is the name of the farm we are relocating to,” Murphy added.

With so much going on it will be touch and go for the pair to take in a minibreak to the Berkshire area of England next month to cheer on some Longways graduates at Royal Ascot. Chief among them will be Le Brivido, who is likely to step up in grade and trip following his encouraging comeback run in the G3 Abernant S. over an inadequate six furlongs at Newmarket in April. “He is going for the Queen Anne S. and hopefully there might be a filly we sold running later in the week so it would be a shame for at least one of us not to be there, even from a networking point of view,” O’Connell said, before her other half chipped in wistfully, “Sarah might make it to Royal Ascot but I might well be stuck at home on a building site.”

View the full article