Every new Flat racing season sees the fascination of a new crop of thoroughbreds. Although each generation of racehorses is restriced to a single Classic campaign, the year-round frenzy of buying bloodstock does see history repeat itself. Read on for more…

Back in July 1985, at Keeneland Sales, Lexington, Kentucky, a group of sombre-faced Irishmen accompanied by a high-rolling entourage headed by Robert Sangster lifted the already balmy bloodstock market to a new height when paying $13.1 million for a Northern Dancer colt subsequently named Seattle Dancer. The purchase - for which the billionaire Maktoum family of Dubai came off second best - was made on behalf of Coolmore, a stud operation just ten years old but already the largest and most internationally-aware outfit in thoroughbred breeding.

John Magnier, the principal of Coolmore, had outlined his plans for the stud in a rare interview in the 1970’s.

“If we keep stallions here and stand them very cheaply…in a short time we would be buying tenth-rate stallions ” and when we went to the yearling sales nobody would want our produce,” he said. “We have got to avail ourselves of the outside markets and stand stallions which will have international appeal as well.”

That evening at Keeneland was all part of Magnier’s masterplan for Coolmore. Those who had known him from an early age never doubted that Magnier, a tall imposing figure with a steely gaze, was going to be a big success in life. He grew up at Grange Stud near Fermoy in Co Cork, the heart of National Hunt breeding. He was born on February 10 1948 and was educated privately at Glenstal Abbey in Co Limerick, but after his father Tom died he left school at the age of 15.

Magnier assisted his mother Evie (whose sister Mimi was married to the late former Jockey Club senior steward Lord Manton) in the running of Grange Sud, and visitors to the farm recall the young John Magnier milking the family’s dairy herd. The family had bred National Hunt horses since the 1850s and had stood stallions including Cottage, who died aged 24 in January 1942 and who counted the likes of Vincent O’Brien’s triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Cottage Rake amongst his progeny.

The O’Brien family from Churchtown went back a long way with the Magniers - John’s mother had been chief bridesmaid at Vincent’s wedding in 1951, so it was appropriate that John married O’Brien’s daughter Susanin the summer of 1975. The couple now have five children.

Vincent O’Brien is a successful breeder of long standing, and he said of Magnier: “He is a man of exceptional ability; he thinks big, deals shrewdly, and is most knowledgeable about bloodlines and everything to do with the stud business. John is so able I feel he would have reached the top of whatever profession he chose, and our very close association has been the greatest pleasure to me - it is a joy to work with someone of his calibre.”

There is mutual admiration between the pair and Magnier said of O’Brien: “Not only would I describe him as a great trainer - he is on a plane apart when it comes to breeding matters - Vincent can compete with anybody in buying on looks alone. He could, I am certain, pick a potential winner, even a future champion, without even looking at the pedigree. Nobody before Vincent, or likely to come after him, could ever match his knowledge of pedigrees and bloodlines. It’s uncanny really.”

Magnier took charge of Grange Stud and soon afterwards bought Castle Hyde Stud nearby. By the mid-1970s the ambitious young man was building up a thriving operation. Further north, Tim Vigors was developing Coolmore Stud and in 1973 invited Vincent O’Brien, whose Ballydoyle stable was just a few miles away, to become a partner.

O’Brien recruited Magnier, whom he regarded as “the most capable young man in Europe for the job”, to manage Coolmore when Vigors, who was to drop out of the partnership following a divorce, wished to move out of Ireland. Magnier, via bloodstock agent Jack Doyle, had met Vernon’s football pools heir Robert Sangster at Haydock in 1971 when in Britain to buy Green God to stand at Castle Hyde. Sangster, 12 years older than Magnier, was impressed by the young Irishman and supported Green God.

In January 1975 the existing Coolmore partnership announced an amalgamation with Sangster and Magnier to form the Coolmore, Castle Hyde and Associated Studs. The manager of Castle Hyde, Gay O’Callaghan, helped manage the new operation with Magnier, while other early key members of staff included Bob Lanigan, later to become general manager, and former jockey Tommy Stack, as well as Magnier’s brothers David, who continues to run the family’s Grange Stud, and Peter.

The Coolmore philosophy, dreamt up by Magnier and put into practice through Sangster’s wealth and O’Brien’s training skills, was to buy into the hugely lucrative stallion market by acquiring potential sires either at the sales or produce them in the breeding shed. A number of other investors were involved and the partnership who owned the $13.1 million yearling, bought through British Bloodstock Agency director Joss Collins, was typical of the make-up of those at the time. Sangster and Coolmore took a 65 per cent stake, Greek shipping billionaire Stavros Niarchos had a quarter and wealthy San Francisco builder Danny Schwartz owned ten per cent.

Other investors in Coolmore syndicates included Alan Clore, son of wealthy financier Sir Charles Clore, Jack Mulcahy, the Irish-born American steel tycoon who had advised Vincent O’Brien to take a share in all his own horses, Paris-based Jean-Pierre Binet, Bob Fluor of the American-based Fluor Corporation, Swiss billionaire Walter Haefner, London insurance broker Charles St George, Scottish aristocrat Simon Fraser, Irish property developer Patrick Gallagher and Yorkshire-based David Aykroyd.

Vincent O’Brien took a trusted team of advisers to the sales with him, including his brother Phonsie, Coolmore vet Bob Griffin, bloodstock agent Tom Cooper of the BBA’s Irish division and the father of Alan Cooper, racing manager to Stavros Niarchos, and Californian agent Billy McDonald.

The sales team were entrusted with huge sums of money with which, in effect, to gamble on a mega scale. But Magnier’s bold strategy was soon paying dividends. The first crop of sales purchases included the Derby winner The Minstrel, Eclipse winner Artaius and Be My Guest, who had been bought at Goffs for Ir127,000gns and will always be fondly remembered at Coolmore.

Be My Guest started covering for Ir5,000gns in 1978, but his fee rose to Ir75,000gns as he became champion first-season sire and then Britain and Ireland’s champion sire in 1982. He died aged 30 in 2004 and is remembered at Coolmore and at Goffs by a life-sized bronze.

The early years saw many other outstanding performances on the racecourse or at stud from such greats as Sadler’s Wells, who was bred by Sangster’s Swettenham Stud out of a mare bought as a yearling at Keeneland, El Gran Senor, Be My Guest’s son Assert, Alleged, Storm Bird, Golden Fleece, Fairy King and Caerleon. They laid the foundations for a bloodstock empire that has continued to grow and while many of the early players, both human and equine, may no longer be around, John Magnier’s Coolmore is still a breeding operation without parallel.

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