Fahey Looks to Life After Ribchester Cont
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MONDAY, 19 MARCH, 2018 But you do tend to find the better horses run a bit greener FAHEY LOOKS TO LIFE than you=d think, because their work is so easy at home. So I rang John again afterwards and said: >I still think he=s a good AFTER RIBCHESTER one, but you=d better sit on the fence.= Of course he then ran second in the Gimcrack and they were straight on the phone. He was the type of horse that in three strides he could be doing 35 mph, and that just put the lads riding him on the back foot every time. I think they did well, William [Buick] and James [Doyle], because you couldn=t ever get him to relax once he was in the stalls. I think he was getting better with age and if he was still in training this year he=d have been better again. TDN: As it is, it=s time to turn the page. How did you find the restocking process at the yearling sales? RF: Somebody asked me the other day what was my biggest fear in racing and I said it was the price of horsesCespecially young stock, untried stock. Cont. p2 IN TDN AMERICA TODAY NJ RACING WAITS FOR SPORTS BETTING DECISION Richard Fahey and Ribchester | Racing Post photo Alayna Cullen sits down with Dennis Drazin as Monmouth Park officials await court decision on sports betting. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN America. Q&A by Chris McGrath Trainer Richard Fahey enjoyed a memorable campaign in 2017, his 200 winners including the four-time Group 1-winning miler Ribchester (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}). That one=s departure for stud duties has no doubt left a gap in the stable, but when questioned by TDN=s Chris McGrath, Fahey expressed optimism ahead of the 2018 flat season. TDN: Well there=s no getting away from it, Richard. Two hundred winners in Britain last year, so you had terrific strength in depth as well. But there=s a great, big Ribchester-shaped hole in the middle of the team for 2018, isn=t there? RF: Look, of course we=ll miss him. He was a guaranteed Group 1 horse and they=re hard to find. But he=s gone where he has to go. I mentioned him to John Ferguson before he ever ran, rang him on the morning of his first race. And lo and behold, he got beat! I couldn=t believe it. TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 2 OF 9 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • 19 MARCH, 2018 Fahey Looks To Life After Ribchester cont. from p1 But that=s the best part of my job, I think, and probably the RF: Only five, six years ago you could buy a nice colt for 30 or 40 most important: going out and finding these horses. It=s like grand. That same horse is nearly 100 grand now. So we do have Premier League footballers: the ones that cost ,60 or ,70 to work harder at it. And it is worrying that we=ll go to a big sale million, everybody can pick them out. It=s finding the academy and find ourselves tyre-kicking. We got two out of Book 1 this players, or somebody from the lower leagues. That=s the bit we year, after looking at maybe 150. work hard at. Touch wood, every year we come up with decent horses; so something is working right. Can I put my finger on it? I TDN: So if you can=t simply spend more, what do you don=t know, but we=re doing the groundwork, we=re working compromise on? hard at it. I keep notes on every horse that goes through the RF: We know we can=t afford the Galileos. We know where to go ring, and if one comes out and wins I want to go back and see and where not to go. You just have to give up on the book. Nine times out of 10, it will be because we couldn=t somethingCbut as long as you buy a nice horse, and a sound afford itCbut if one slips through I=ll go back and ask why. horse, I think you=ve got a chance. And I think that=s where we TDN: And how are the yearlings you did manage to buy get lucky: we still will buy an individual. Doesn=t matter what shaping up, as a group? he=s by, every stallion can get a good horse. But he has to be sound anyway: Peter Easterby always told me that. One you can RF: It sounds silly after what I=ve just saidCbut when I look at train. I see horses at the big sales making 300, 400 grand, and I this year=s batch, I=m amazed how well we=ve done. Because wouldn=t have them gift-wrapped. Whether I=m right or wrong, I they=re a good bunch of horses. We were going to have a bit of a don=t know. It=s everybody to their own. sort-out on the grass, of the early ones, but after the snowdrifts last week it=s saturated up there. So I=d be guessing about the SOMEBODY ASKED ME THE OTHER DAY Brocklesby! But overall I=ve been delighted. At this stage, of course, they=re all flying machines. You=d know if one is WHAT WAS MY BIGGEST FEAR IN completely no good, but touch wood we haven=t got to that RACING AND I SAID IT WAS THE PRICE stage yet and they=re all coming up as well as they should be. I=ve just short of 100 on my list hereCso there must be four OF HORSES–ESPECIALLY YOUNG, rockets in there, mustn=t there!? UNTRIED STOCK. Richard Fahey The beauty is you don=t know where the good ones are coming from. If it were just down to pounds, shillings and pence, I=d be out of business. But luckily we=re still here and surviving. Look, I=m in a privileged position. We can buy up to maybe 100 grand. That=s a lot of money. Except in the racehorse world, it=s nothing. And most of the good ones don=t come up for sale, anyway. So we have to try and buy something no-one else wants. Richard Fahey | Racing Post photo TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 3 OF 9 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • 19 MARCH, 2018 TDN: After seeing them at the sales and breaking them, do you like any of the first-season sires in particular? RF: We=d be quite sweet on Garswood (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}). I know we trained him, which sort of swayed us, but it think we=ve ended up with eight. Garswood was a great-minded horse, he probably didn=t even want to be a racehorse he was so laid-back, but on his day he was a very talented one. We=d be pretty happy with them. Vice President, International Operations TDN: And what kind of shape are you in with the older horses? Gary King Twitter: @garykingTDN RF: We=d have some empty boxes this year, now. We had a big [email protected] clear-out: I think we sold about 70 in Newmarket and 10 at + 1.732.320.0975 Donny. But not just a clear-out, we sold some nice, progressive International Editor horses. The thing is, I used to buy and sell second-hand horses. It Kelsey Riley was fantastic, because we were guaranteed winners. I Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN remember going to Newmarket and buying 33 second-hand [email protected] horses. And I think all but two won. We bought a Chester Cup winner, we bought a Magnet Cup winner, it was brilliant; it got European Editor me going. But when I was finished with them, I was finding they Emma Berry were riding horses; there was no value in them at all. So I had to Twitter: @collingsberry buy untried stock, yearlings, potential. Before, lots of people [email protected] wouldn=t buy off meCbut we=re selling winners now, so I=m Associate International Editor hoping that will help trade. Because a lot of my owners are Heather Anderson working men and they need a return. Now we sell lot of horses Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN to Hong Kong, to Australia, to America. And horses I felt might struggle here because the system doesn=t cater for them, but Marketing Manager could do well in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain or Qatar. Alayna Cullen Twitter: @AlaynaCullen [email protected] WE’RE SELLING WINNERS NOW, SO I’M Contributing Editor HOPING THAT WILL HELP TRADE. A LOT Alan Carasso OF MY OWNERS ARE WORKING MEN Twitter: @EquinealTDN AND THEY NEED A RETURN. Cafe Racing Richard Fahey Sean Cronin Tom Frary [email protected] Irish Correspondent Daithi Harvey TDN: That said, you=ve still got a big string. Perhaps you could pick out a couple of quality names among the quantity? Regular Columnists Andrew Caulfield RF: I know it was a bit of a shock to other people when Sands Of John Berry Mali (Fr) (Panis) won the GimcrackCbut it wasn=t to us. He has Kevin Blake wintered extremely well, we=re very happy with him, and we=re Tom Peacock sticking at sprinting. He bombed out in the Middle Park for no reason whatsoever, I haven=t a clue what happened that day. TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 4 OF 9 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • 19 MARCH, 2018 He was just never at the races.