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Thread: Gigginstown

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    Gigginstown

    There's an interesting piece about Gigginstown in yesterday's Irish Times. Perhaps the most telling part of the article is where the writer says several trainers he approached declined to speak for fear of saying something that might offend the O'Leary brothers.

    RACING: IN FOCUS GIGGINSTOWN STUD Michael and Eddie O’Leary have together created a racing empire that is vital to the welfare of the sport in this country, writes BRIAN O'CONNOR



    IT IS a racing truth that there is never a shortage of horses, just a shortage of those with the means to buy them. So when a rich man decides to dip a toe into ownership he is invariably surrounded by bloodstock “experts” in possession of shark smiles that can make Jaws look like Elmer Fudd. It is little wonder then that Michael O’Leary turned to a reassuring presence when he started buying horses.
    Eddie O’Leary is the Ryanair boss’s younger brother, someone who carved out a career in horses long before his more famous sibling turned at least some of his attention away from jets and decided to play up part of a fortune reportedly worth up to €500 million.
    That’s the sort of money to get bloodstock agents, trainers, sales companies and any assortment of hangers-on twisting themselves into a frothy frenzy. But the lesser-known O’Leary provides an insider’s knowledge with a familial disinclination to fleece the gullible meal-ticket for everything he has.
    One result is Eddie O’Leary has become almost as familiar a face on Ireland’s racecourses as the maroon colours of the Gigginstown Stud banner under which Michael O’Leary runs his horses.
    Bloodstock insiders estimate almost 150 Gigginstown horses are in training in Ireland, a total that makes only JP McManus a comparable force on the Irish National Hunt scene.
    An interesting twist to next week’s Punchestown festival will be the tussle between the two great ownership behemoths over who will be crowned champion owner when the season ends next weekend.
    Less than €150,000 separates McManus and O’Leary, with the latter notching up almost €1.5 million in prize money so far this campaign. That just about covers the annual training fees for 150 horses.
    What O’Leary writes off as “gone money” is what he pays for young horses in the first place. That often involves six-figure sums. At a time when the economics of racing are under serious strain, Gigginstown’s influence can hardly be over-estimated.
    From country breeders to hardy point-to-point people and on to any number of cash-strapped trainers, it is the prospect of selling on or moulding the career of a potential star that keeps heads over water. Not many owners in Ireland can afford to consistently pony up for the best young prospects. O’Leary is one of them.
    In fact it’s hard to over-state how pervasive Gigginstown’s influence has become in the decade since Michael O’Leary first got involved in horses.
    It is 10 years since his first horse, Tuco, was killed in a fall at Fairyhouse. Far from souring O’Leary to the sport, that famously lateral mind concluded the high attrition rate inherent in the National Hunt game demanded sufficient numbers to maintain his interest.
    Shortly afterwards he purchased a strapping son of Presenting called War Of Attrition. In 2006 he achieved the ultimate aim of all O’Leary’s horses, winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in brilliant style under Conor O’Dwyer. Injury prevented War Of Attrition from building on that success but the business template was set.
    Gigginstown purchase many types of horses. In fact despite O’Leary’s oft-repeated “loathing” of flat racing, he has had quite an amount of success at the summer game, including winning a Stakes race with Hen Night in 2010. But usually the aim is to buy young National Hunt types at the sales or off the point-to-point circuit that have the size and scope to potentially follow the Gold Cup trail. This is where Eddie O’Leary comes into his own.
    While his brother enjoys an international business profile and revels in playing the media game, Eddie O’Leary prefers to fly under the radar. Bloodstock rather than the boardroom is his natural environment.
    Based at the 200-acre Lynn Lodge Stud near Killucan in Co Westmeath, the quieter, stockier O’Leary is a well known “pinhooker”, the business of buying foals and yearlings and selling them on at a profit to go flat racing. It is a pursuit that boils judgment down to hard cash and Eddie O’Leary learned to back his judgment in getting it right more often than not, long before his famous brother got into horses.
    “That’s what we try to do: if you can do that you’ll be alright, but we get it wrong plenty of times too. The way I think of it is, it gives you a good kick when you get it right and a good kick in the ass when you get it wrong!” he has said.
    Notable names to have gone through Lynn Lodge include the top sprinter Benbuan, winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye, and Castledale, who won the Santa Anita Derby in America. Longchamp and Los Angeles are a long way from trudging through a point-to-point field but a good horse is a good horse whatever the environment and passing Eddie O’Leary’s eye is crucial to any prospective sale.
    “Eddie buys all the stock. It’s up to him. Michael isn’t involved in that,” says Conor O’Dwyer, who has trained for Gigginstown ever since retiring as a jockey. “Eddie is a key player. Michael trusts him, of course, and they have a special set up.
    “They’re hugely important. Without them an awful lot of people would be in a lot worse situation than they are. If they went, it would be like if JP was gone. It would be a very different racing world.”
    The older O’Leary summed up the Gigginstown operation a little more colourfully.
    “Eddie runs the stud, buys all the horses, does all that,” he said last year. “I just write the cheques. We have an appropriate division of labour!”
    War Of Attrition was a product of the point-to-point field and many of Gigginstown’s best also cut their teeth on that circuit under the tutelage of the Co Tipperary trainer Pat Doyle. There they learn the basics of their trade. Then they are dispersed among a long list of trainers across Ireland to continue their racing careers.
    The success of the Gigginstown model is reflected in a vintage crop of novice chasers this season. Sir Des Champs, a French bred, is unbeaten, won at Cheltenham last month and is already favourite for next year’s Gold Cup. First Lieutenant, reportedly O’Leary’s most expensive ever purchase at €250,000, is also a blue-riband contender after being just touched off at last month’s festival.
    Last Instalment is possibly best of the lot but is currently on the injury sidelines.
    That same attrition rate that provoked Michael O’Leary’s rapid expansion in ownership also provokes the owner’s scepticism when it comes to his chances in any race.
    He likes regaling people with how the one Cheltenham “banker” he has ever owned was War Of Attrition in the 2005 Arkle. The horse was well beaten. But that was instantly forgotten when War Of Attrition won the Gold Cup. O’Leary famously described that as the best day of his life, apart from when his children were born.
    What is clear though is O’Leary is a lot more involved with his horses than he might like to admit. He is always available to trainers on the phone, regularly goes racing and isn’t shy about ringing up day or night. Not surprisingly he also isn’t afraid to make a decision about whether to sell off a horse if it doesn’t measure up.
    O’Leary has thanked his late father Ted for having horses “bred into me” and appears to genuinely love both the sport and the animal.
    “They’re lovely animals,” he has said. “They’re like humans. You can’t tell which one is going to be a winner from looking at them. Flat racing is much more driven by pedigree, whereas with jump racing, almost every top jumps horse isn’t related to anything.”
    That doesn’t mean the O’Leary’s are a soft touch though. Trainers have had their services unceremoniously dispensed with and there is no reluctance to call a spade a shovel when it comes to the financial bottom line. There is also a feeling that an individual’s judgment gets one chance to be right with a horse, otherwise the Gigginstown boat can sail on elsewhere.
    Several people contacted for this piece said they would rather not be quoted for fear of saying something that might annoy the brothers.
    The horses go to Gigginstown for their summer holidays and return to work in July. Not unnaturally trainers are keen to say nothing that might see their charges not return to them.
    From a punter point of view, the rise and rise of Gigginstown has been good. Because the concentration is on finding quality horses there is little or no focus on ordinary handicaps so the horses run straight with a minimum of messing. Runners that don’t reach standard are sent to the sales and the money reinvested.
    It’s an expensive way to get your mind off business but Michael O’Leary’s escape from the office shows no sign of losing its appeal. And there is the competitive element too.
    “I’d say neither Mick nor JP (McManus) would admit to the owners’ championship being top of their agenda but at the same time they are competitive people,” Conor O’Dwyer says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a trainer, a jockey or an owner: you want to win your championship. I’m sure it would give Mick and Eddie a huge buzz.”
    There are plenty within Irish racing with a real interest in the O’Leary’s continuing to get that buzz.
    Some of you might prefer to read it on the website:

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...315007582.html

  2. #2
    SlimChance
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    You can't blame the trainers can you? Who was been struck of their list in recent years? Rothwell?

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    Senior Member On The Bridle's Avatar
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    Rothwell the only one?? Did he have many for them.
    Do not mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance nor my kindness for weakness.

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    Good article....thanks

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    SlimChance
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    Quote Originally Posted by On The Bridle View Post
    Rothwell the only one?? Did he have many for them.
    Just Rathlin. You would hope there was more too it given that he needed a wind operation to show his form.


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    Last edited by SlimChance; 22nd April 2012 at 9:31 PM.

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    Nice one Grey. Their mother is an O Callaghan sister to Tony, Gay, and Noel all famous in the breeder, owner, pin hooker world so it is not just their father they got the interest from. An optimistic note from the journalist to think the prize money won covers their training fees; he must not be including travel taxes, over weight luggage and other extras. makes you wonder what Davy Russell would be penalised for carrying overweight in a race on a Gigginstown horse!

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    makes you wonder what Davy Russell would be penalised for carrying overweight in a race on a Gigginstown horse!
    I'd say squeezing every time he rides one of theirs into that frame they use for checking baggage size bothers him the most.

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    Watch out for the bunch of over the top O'Leary horses running this week in Punchestown just to hoover up the prizemoney. Insubordination will not be accepted from any trainer. But he's a great owner for the game. He has no interest in landing a gamble and the trainers are afraid of trying it. Byrnes and Martin running them straight. Not even God could have done that.....but O'Leary has.
    Last edited by Cantoris; 23rd April 2012 at 2:36 PM.

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    So true! Bog Warrior winning a beginners chase by a mile would not have happened in any other colours.


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    Last edited by SlimChance; 23rd April 2012 at 2:55 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SlimChance View Post
    So true! Bog Warrior winning a beginners chase by a mile would not have happened in any other colours.


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    Dedigout, Trifolium

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    Does O'Leary make Davy Russell pay for his own colours ?

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    SlimChance
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cantoris View Post
    Dedigout, Trifolium
    Dedigout drifted badly on debut this year and won.

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    Senior Member On The Bridle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ardross View Post
    Does O'Leary make Davy Russell pay for his own colours ?
    No but he makes him pay for his own flights...
    Do not mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance nor my kindness for weakness.

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    An almost exclusively chasing based operation, remember seeing him talking about the possibility of him ever owning a champion hurdle horse and saying if he ever does it will be by complete accident
    Some people say he’s the best since Arkle and that’s certainly true when you look at what he’s done

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    Quote Originally Posted by granger View Post
    An almost exclusively chasing based operation, remember seeing him talking about the possibility of him ever owning a champion hurdle horse and saying if he ever does it will be by complete accident
    Yet he bought Carlito Brigante, His Excellency etc and continues to buy horses off the flat. I think his objective is to win a Gold Cup and be top owner. He won't be the latter by owning just chasers. I just think he wants winners when he goes to the races. He said the handicappers at Cheltenham are just there to fill his day.

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    Is it just me or are Gigi buying more flat pedigree horses these days?
    Some people say he’s the best since Arkle and that’s certainly true when you look at what he’s done

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    Senior Member fonz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by granger View Post
    Is it just me or are Gigi buying more flat pedigree horses these days?
    No that's something that has caught my eye aswell
    They have 2 entered in the 3yo race tomorrow
    Last edited by fonz; 29th November 2014 at 7:28 PM.

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    Gigginstown have removed all their horses from Sandra Hughes and Tony Martin.

    Very harsh on Sandra Hughes just a year after she won the Irish National for them.

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    Tough on Hughes alright.

    By moved, are the horses being sent elsewhere or being sold on?
    Some people say he’s the best since Arkle and that’s certainly true when you look at what he’s done

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    Johnny Ward in RP

    GIGGINSTOWN House Stud have taken their horses away from trainers Tony Martin and Sandra Hughes.
    On the day his brother Michael's airline Ryanair posted record full-year profits, Eddie O'Leary of Gigginstown confirmed disappointing results from their horses with Martin and Hughes had led to the decision.
    Hughes, who took over her late father Dessie's licence and won the 2015 Irish Grand National for Gigginstown with Thunder And Roses, enjoyed Grade 1 success for the owners two seasons ago with Lieutenant Colonel. She trained ten winners in all in the maroon and white colours but has lost the five horses she had for the O'Learys.
    Martin, who reportedly loses a dozen, has saddled 24 winners for Gigginstown in the past five seasons, including at the Cheltenham Festival in 2014 when Savello landed the Grand Annual, and when Rivage D'Or won the Glenfarclas Cross Country in 2015. Dedigout won four Grade 2s for Martin and the O'Learys.
    Trainer Eoin Griffin also lost out recently when Gigginstown moved the useful Archive to Henry de Bromhead.
    Results business
    Eddie O'Leary told the Racing Post on Monday: "Michael rang both trainers to tell them we'd be taking the horses away for the summer and that they'd not be coming back. We're very much a results-based business."
    Gigginstown's main trainers in recent years have been Gordon Elliott, Willie Mullins and Mouse Morris, and they have run away with the Irish jumps owners' title for the past two seasons.

    Eddie O'Leary added: "We give the trainers who get us results due reward."

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