The success of Irish Thoroughbreds around the globe is attracting American owners to Ireland’s sales and training centers
If anyone in the jubilant crowd at this year’s historic $1 million Irish Derby needed extra proof of Ireland’s dominance in Thoroughbred racing, they only had to wait two minutes for it. St. Jovite, an Irish champion, son of an Irish mare, trained by County Carlow’s Jim Bolger, underscored the country’s excellence in Thoroughbred breeding and training by running the fastest Irish Derby in history. Runner-up Dr. Devious, bred in Ireland at Vincent O’Brien’s Lyonstown Stud, had proven the caliber of his Irish bloodlines three weeks earlier with a win over St. Jovite in England’s Epsom Derby.
St. Jovite and Dr. Devious have more than their Irish legacies in common. Like an increasing number of Irish horses competing worldwide on the flat and over jumps, they both carry American silks: St. Jovite is the standard-bearer for Kentucky resident Virginia Kraft Payson, and Dr. Devious competes for Californians Sidney and Jenny Craig.
Payson was a believer in Ireland’s winning ways at the races long before the Derby’s notable Irish-American one-two punch. Impressed several years ago by the potent combination of classic Irish blood-lines, state-of-the-art training facilities, and fabled Irish horsemanship, Payson moved her stable from England to Ireland. Bolger’s facilities and the careful Irish training methods were key factors. “They’re a lot more forgiving of horses,” Payson explains. “They don’t ask two-year-olds to go around tight bends, which is hard on young horses’ knees, and the horses aren’1 faced with the very, very hard tracks we frequently have here in America…. I think it’s possible to wind up with a sounder four-year-old if he spends two years over there.”
Ireland’s international winners back up Payson’s impressions of Irish excellence.
St. Jovite and Dr. Devious are among this year’s Irish-bred or -trained winners around the world, at tracks in Asia, the United States, England, Germany, France, and Italy. In recent American flat and jump races, major Irish winners included two-time Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase victor Morley Street, American Horse of the Year Black Tie Affair, millionaires In Excess and Kostroma, and Belmont Stakes winner Go and Go. Given that wide-ranging success and Ireland’s reputation as a source for superior bloodlines and training techniques, it’s no wonder that more Irish horses are representing American owners in the winner’s circle.
Americans have raced in Ireland for generations since Irish American Richard Croker led Ireland’s winning owners in 1905 and 1906 and won the 1907 Irish Derby but never before have the incentives been so worthwhile: an annual prize money budget of $25 million, up dramatically from $8 million in 1981, while the annual cost of owning a horse holds steady at about $18,000; a wide choice of group ownership options, such as partnerships and syndicates, that allow families, friends, and clubs to campaign better runners at a lower cost; a VAT rate of just 2.3 percent compared to England’s 17.5 percent rate; and an ideal geographical location with well established shipping routes so owners can compete in Europe and Asia from an Irish base.
Even the Irish government has invested in the Thoroughbred boom. In an unprecedented cooperative effort, the government and the racing industry have joined financial forces to promote Ireland’s growing Thoroughbred opportunities.
The result: Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, a division of the Irish Racing Board specifically dedicated to providing information and services for free to owners and potential owners of Irish Thoroughbreds.
Providing everything from sales dates to ownership options to lists of Irish bloodstock agents, IT’s year-old information campaign already is yielding results, according to Dublin-based marketing director Matt Mitchell. “More potential purchasers are now attending Ireland’s public sales,” Mitchell says, “and racehorse ownership is at an historically high level in Ireland. For both jumping and flat breeding we have a strong mare population and world-class stallions, as well as an excellent climate and limestone-based pastures which promote good bone development in young horses.”
Top trainer Dermot Weld—-who brought Go and Go to win the Belmont Stakes and plans a raid on this month’s Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase-welcomes the commitment to developing new ownership. “The majority of the Thoroughbred horses in this country are for sale,” Weld says, “and we are basically a nation for the production and sale of horses. The races are the shop window for our breeding industry, andit’s important that the two progress in tandem. We’ve got some very high-class horses here.”
The proof is in the races. By that standard, Irish horses clearly rule the turf, and their victories at home and abroad are bringing prestige and new owners back to Ireland. This fall, as ITM branches into America, Irish runners will storm the Breeders’ Cup, where they are expected to add more laurels to their proven status as one of Ireland’s most treasured—and valuable– products.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the October 1992 issue of Irish America. ♦
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