| FLAT OWNER | Sonnyboyliston and Ben Coen win the Comer Group International Irish St. Leger (Group 1) at The Curragh
| MAGAZINE 2022 |
Kildare Racing Club-owned
SONNYBOYLISTON delivers a knockout punch
ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S OLDEST RACING CLUB’S ACHIEVED CLASSIC SUCCESS LAST SEASON. ITS FOUNDER AND MANAGER LIAM CLARKE CHATS TO BREANDÁN Ó hUALLACHÁIN ABOUT SONNYBOYLISTON’S CAREER TO DATE AND FUTURE PLANS.
Healy Racing
F
ounded over 35 years ago by Liam Clarke and his friend Fran O’Sullivan, Kildare Racing Club had arguably its best season to date last year when Sonnyboyliston took both the Sky Bet Ebor and the Comer Group International Irish St Leger. Club founder and manager, Liam Clarke, a compiler of pedigrees for over quarter of a century, explains how the club came about: “Fran O’Sullivan and I compiled all the
pedigrees for the sales companies. We bought a horse between us and decided to set up a racing club. We had a bit of luck with the horse and from that we bought another two horses, Music Interpreter and My Alanna. Both were trained by Tony Redmond and won five races each. It just gradually grew from a couple of friends and then a few people further afield wanted to get involved and we’ve kept it going ever since then.” Kildare Racing Club is different to many other clubs according to its lead man as the
number of people involved in each horse is limited and owners “have a proper share.” Unlike major racing clubs in Britain which might have hundreds or thousands of members, Kildare Racing Club operates in a different manner: “We try to keep it to a maximum of ten people in a horse. Sometimes we might have only four or five who own the horse, but they are all members of the racing club; they’re all separately formed syndicates within the club. A lot of the lads are involved in two or three horses.”
| 14 | THE ASSOCIATION OF IRISH RACEHORSE OWNERS
014 AIRO 2022_Kildare Racing Club_V3.indd 14
26/01/2022 16:07
