Ardglas Stables: a Consignment on the up Cont
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WEDNESDAY, 4 APRIL 2018 ARDGLAS STABLES: A EASTER AMIDST THRIVING AUSTRALIAN MARKET By Kelsey Riley CONSIGNMENT ON THE UP Twelve months ago, the team at Nasser Lootah=s Emirates Park Stud truly left Inglis=s Easter yearling sale with the one they wanted, admittedly spending their entire budget on one jewel: a A$1.7-million Snitzel (Aus) filly out of the dual Group 1 winner Response (Aus) (Charge Forward {Aus}). Two weeks ago that filly, Estijaab (Aus), fully justified that decision when winning the G1 Golden Slipper. That result for the Dubai-based businessman Lootah followed a year on from the fairytale story of A$20,000 Inglis Classic graduate She Will Reign (Aus) (Manhattan Rain {Aus}) winning the Slipper for her large syndicate of many first-time owners. The scale of what is on offer at all levels of the market at an Inglis yearling sale is clearly evident, and from Apr. 9-11 buyers will have the opportunity to get their hands on some of the most valuable Thoroughbreds on the planet. Cont. p5 IN TDN AMERICA TODAY Ambrose O=Mullane & Mary Reynolds, proprietors of Ardglas Stables PEDIGREE INSIGHTS: AUDIBLE Emma Berry Andrew Caulfield investigates the pedigree of GI Florida Derby By Chris McGrath hero Audible (Into Mischief). Click or tap here to go straight to The reserve was 50,000gns. And so was the opening bid. At TDN America. 180,000 gns, a friend turned to Ambrose O'Mullane and said, "How are you so calm?" "Because it's money for jam," he shrugged. He remembered how he had never even wanted to inspect the colt, at Deauville the previous summer. Le Havre (Ire) was all the rage. No way would they ever be able to afford one of those. But his partner Mary Reynolds insisted Ambrose come and take a look. There was a cut on one of his hocks, an innocuous blemish. That was all it took for the colt to be led out unsold for i15,000. They ran straight down to the Coulonces boxes, offered i10,000. No, they wanted i15,000. A bit of haggling ensued, but other people were heading across. Twelve grand, then; and here, we have a pen. They could easily have sold him on for a profit the same day. As it was, here they were at Tattersalls the following May, crushed in the gangway as everyone watched agog. Even Mary had admitted that the horse breezed well. As a rule, she would be reliably despondent when ringing Ambrose back in Co Tipperary. Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 2 OF 13 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • 04 APRIL 2018 Ardglas Stables: A Consignment on the Up Cont. from p1 Friends, other consignors, agents, trainers, everyone went wild. Their Ardglas Stable outside Emly is so literally homespun-- They knew what it meant; knew how these two had grafted, until this year they have never had any help, and Ambrose was seeking a diamond in the rough. spending half the morning riding out over at Con Marnane's-- Anyone who has ever viewed the breezing of a cheap yearling that only one of them can be spared to accompany horses to a as a bet to nothing should ask Ambrose and Mary. Throw in sale. But this time, unprecedentedly, Ambrose had made the keep and feed, from September maybe to May; never mind journey as well. This was a tall colt, too tall for little Mary to be whatever value they might put on their own time, dawn until showing. dusk. "We've had piles of those horses, bought them for two Though he had proved a most obliging animal, all the way grand and sold them for 1500," Ambrose says. "Very few of through breaking and his prep, after his breeze the pressure was them make money. To get the 20 grand horse into 40 is beginning to tell. There were probably easier than getting the nine vettings. The night before, five grand horse into 20." someone wanted an X-ray, and The first horse they ever the colt was nearing the end of breezed, in their hobby days, his fuse. Ambrose, in fact, they had been given for nothing: acquired the scars to prove it: a Bertolini filly. She made two, on his forearm. Nearly two i4,000 at Goresbridge, and they years on, they have only had to borrow a fiver to get a recently faded. cup of tea on the way home. Ambrose himself was So Mary, watching at the rope, composed as ever. That morning had none of Ambrose's he stretched out in the tack sangfroid. A month earlier she room, fast asleep. It had been had taken three horses to the the same in his riding days, as an Ascot sale. "Two belonged to a amateur over jumps. Even if he client, the other we owned half had a fancied mount, he'd with a friend," she recalls. "There The sale-topping Le Havre colt, lot 247, who would become Pouvoir always be dozing beforehand. was no bid for him and the other Magique (Fr), already a two-time winner for HRH Princess Haya of And they knew he could handle Jordan and trainer John Gosden | Tattersalls two sold for little or nothing. a hothead, too. In the end, that And I said: we've had it." counted against him. "This horse is bloody mad," trainers would A dead end, then? After all the groundwork she had put in say. "He's one for O'Mullane." For every one that submitted, the with horses: the apprentice school, the few rides during her next would deck him. Between riding out and organising the years with Dermot Weld, the gallops fall that put her in hospital handful of horses they were starting to take in themselves-- for five months, the sales work for Willie Browne. But no, it was breaking jumpers, that kind of thing--it wasn't hard to quit the not a dead end. As the hammer came down, she exploited her racing. But this now, this was a game-changer. diminutive build to duck and weave her way through the When the gavel came down at last, at 300,000 gns, Ardglas bedlam. "I was bawling," she admits. "The place was like an had consigned the top lot of the Guineas Breeze-Up Sale. All-Ireland final." Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 3 OF 13 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • 04 APRIL 2018 Ardglas Stables: A Consignment on the Up Cont. Ambrose wanted to follow the colt over for his wind-test, but he was stuck. "They went crazy," he remembers now, looking from their kitchen window to the streaks of snow clinging to the brooding Galtee Mountains. "People who'd been going there for years said they'd never seen the like of it. With all the millions horses have made in that ring, and loads of small people having a touch. Somebody pulled the hat off my head, people were shouting. God help the people with the next horse in because there was no-one left in the ring." Vice President, International Operations Over the following months, he could point to the two scars. Gary King "There's 150,000gns," he'd say. "And there's 150,000gns." But Twitter: @garykingTDN he might sooner point to the new horsewalker; to the new sand [email protected] canter, two furlongs round. Before they had just been hacking + 1.732.320.0975 round the fields, or boxing the horses one by one down to a International Editor neighbour's gallop. And then there are the four new stalls, Kelsey Riley extending their capacity to 18. They have even had to take on an Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN extra pair of hands in the morning, those of Pa Farrell. [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry “We only prep a horse for a trainer. If Twitter: @collingsberry he clocks well on the day, we haven’t [email protected] a clue....Look, it’s grand, the clock Associate International Editor Heather Anderson can work to your advantage. But Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN when our horses clock well, it’s Marketing Manager the horse that’s done it.” Alayna Cullen Ambrose O’Mullane Twitter: @AlaynaCullen [email protected] Contributing Editor Alan Carasso Twitter: @EquinealTDN They are so busy now that Ambrose has had to stop riding out Cafe Racing for Marnane. Sean Cronin "Thanks for all your help over the few years," Ambrose told Tom Frary him. [email protected] "Let me tell you this," Marnane replied. "The only thing that Irish Correspondent got the two of you where you are is hard work." Daithi Harvey That, for sure, is the way people think of these two. "But we did have luck, too," Ambrose stresses. "There's loads of people Regular Columnists out there work very hard and don't get the luck." Andrew Caulfield And they know how tenuously luck holds. Yes, they had John Berry another home run that same spring: a Spirit One (Fr) filly Kevin Blake Ambrose bought at Arqana October, on one bid of i4,000, who Tom Peacock made i66,000 at Goresbridge. Of the other eight they sold in 2016, however, all the others galloped into the red. Cont. p4 “It is very difficult to buy the best Dubawi or the best Galileo because those are almost all in private hands but in Australia the majority of the breeders are commercial and send their best stock to the market. You have a real chance to find a future stallion.” – DAVID REDVERS CLICK HERE to view our interactive brochure and hear what some of the world’s best horsemen are saying about the Australian Thoroughbred market.