Tally-Ho Stud talks...

Sire Power

Photography courtesy of Tally-Ho Stud and by Amy Lanigan

Aisling Crowe chats to the O’Callaghan family about the farm’s current roster

T IS OVER 40 YEARS since Tony and Anne O’Callaghan put down roots near Mullingar in County Westmeath. Over the intervening years the couple, along with their sons Roger and Henry, have striven to build a family business now in its fifth decade.

Synonymous with fast, precocious and successful sires, Tally-Ho Stud has enjoyed success right around the world producing such horses as the Group/Grade 1 winners Fairyland, Sky Lantern, Desert Encounter and Bushranger.

Many of those are the result of the support and dedication to building the careers and reputations of the stallions that the O’Callaghan family stands; Tally-Ho Stud now a leading producer of top-class Flat sires.

THE LATEST SIRE to receive the O’Callaghan backing is Inns Of Court, a son of Invincible Spirit who was trained by André Fabre for Godolphin, and has retired to the farm for this spring season.

He was a Group winner over 5f, 6f and 7f and finished second in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois and Prix de la Forêt.

As well as an exciting race career that saw him win his sole start at two and go on to win at three, four and five, he also has an excellent pedigree – his dam Learned Friend is a Seeking The Gold half-sister to Fierement, a son of Deep Impact, who has won twice at the highest level in Japan.

Roger: Inns Of Court is going well, people are very interested in him. He was a Group 1 winner in everything bar name.

We had been following him for a few years, heard he was finished racing and went from there. It was his race performance that caught our eye, and he is a good-looking horse. He’s tough and sound from a good family and had an exceptional rating.

Tony: He put in a good time for his two-year-old race, ran 14 times and has a good mind. He has good size and scope, he is

R: We have to replace Kodiac, and it won’t be for the lack of trying!

Henry: And don’t forget Zebedee and Sir Prancealot – they had their Group 1 winners as well...

THAT QUEST ENSURES that the renovated stallion yard at Tally-Ho is populated by young sires with their careers all in their early stages.

For two of those horses – Vadamos and Mehmas – 2020 will be a crucial year as the both have their first runners.

The Group 1 Prix du Moulin winner Vadamos is a son of Monsun, while Mehmas, who was a highclass juvenile, is bred on the same Acclamation-Machiavellian cross as leading sire Dark Angel.

Mehmas was a juvenile performer of the highest order and won the Group 2 Richmond Stakes by a neck from Blue Point, conceding 3lb to the future sprint champion.

Mehmas: a talented two-year-old He also won the Group 2 July Stakes and was second to Churchill in the Group 1 National Stakes and third in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes – an impressive resume.

His yearlings averaged 32,665gns last autumn with his top-priced yearling bought by Oliver St Lawrence for £260,000 at Goffs Premier Sale. He had five yearlings sell for six-figure sums.

R: Mehmas was a class horse, a top breeze-up horse and be beat Blue Point, giving him weight, and people forget that.

We have a Mehmas half-sister to Justifier [Tally-Ho-bred Listed winner and Group 3-placed filly from the first crop of Free Eagle] for the breeze-ups, and about half a dozen by both Mehmas and Vadamos for the breeze-up sales. We have to have a little look to see what’s under the bonnet!

Vadamos, perhaps untypical of a son of Monsun, won his Group 1 the Prix du Moulin over a mile demonstrating serious speed. He also won three Group races over the same trip and was second in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois to Ribchester and ahead of fellow Tally-Ho resident and 2000 Guineas winner, Galileo Gold.

Last autumn, Vadamos’ yearlings achieved a top price of €180,000 and he had four lots make six-figure sums.

T: I think Vadamos might surprise a lot of people this year, and we are expecting to get two-year-old winners from him.

R: He was a very good miler and he is an outcross for a lot of mares; you have to think outside the box sometimes. T: He ran the last furlong of the Moulin in a very good time, under 11 seconds [10.47s]. He is a very good-looking horse, and he just floats around the yard. You need that genetic diversity and he offers that to breeders.

R: He is a class horse and looks it, too. We’ll see in two years if we are right or wrong!

COTAI GLORY and GALILEO GOLD : first yearlings in 2020

NESTLED BETWEEN Inns Of Court, Mehmas and Vadamos in their career development are Cotai Glory and Galileo Gold. The pair’s oldest foals are yearlings this year and both have faced the judgment of the market place with their first foals.

The first foals by Cotai Glory, the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes-winning son of Exceed And Excel and placed in three Group 1 sprints, including when a neck defeat by Profitable in the King’s Stand, sold for an average price of 11,358gns headed by a colt out of the Fast Company mare Sommorell, who fetched €62,000.

Galileo Gold was a very good racehorse. After a two-year-old year, which saw him successful in the Vintage Stakes (G2) and third in the Lagardère, he won the 2,000 Guineas and just 21 days later finished second to Awtaad in the Irish version.

He returned to winning ways at Royal Ascot when beating The Gurkha in the St James’s Palace Stakes (G1) before the Ballydoyle runner just gained revenge in the Sussex Stakes with Galileo Gold a neck second.

Tally-Ho Stud supported the sire’s stock in the ring and bought his top-priced foal for €80,000 from Ringfort Stud. The colt is out of Flare Of Firelight, the dam of the dual 2019 Group 2 two-year-old winner Threat.

R: Cotai Glory’s foals went very well at the sales, he stamps his stock, he gets lovelylooking horses so you would be hopeful for a horse that had loads of ability.

Galileo Gold, well people are slagging him because he is by Paco Boy, but they forget he is out of a Galileo mare and he did win a 2,000 Guineas and a St James’s Palace – he wasn’t a one-race wonder!

T: Galileo Gold was a good two-year-old, too, he won the Group 2 Vintage Stakes and was third in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère.

R: And he has a good pedigree – his third dam is a half-sister to Montjeu and Aclaim, and Again is also on the page, so with a little luck...

Cotai Glory

R: People didn’t want to go to Society Rock either and look what happened there! Once the yearlings got to the sales they were mad for him.

T: But, at the end of the day you have to get the results, too. The market is very severe on stallions, it probably wasn’t as vicious in the past as it is now.

R: There is fashion before a stallion has runners – and then there is fashion after their performances on the track.

R: Danetime was a hard enough sell...

T: And it was, too, we started with Kodiac – but I suppose Kodiac hadn’t raced much.

Galileo Gold

KODIAC and KESSAAR: the Tally-Ho king and his son

KODIAC HAS come a long way and now boasts four individual Group 1 winners to his name and status as one of the most popular stallions around.

From a book that once only included 14 outside mares to a book populated by mares from most of Europe’s leading breeders, it’s been some journey for the 19-year-old stallion.

T: He holds the world record for two-year-old winners, had the highest number of two-yearold winners last season and twice he has been leading sire of two-year-olds on prize-money [2016 and 2018].

H: He had two Group 1 winners last year, and two the year before with Best Solution winning Group 1 races over a 1m4f.

Anne: He has done it the hard way, the quality of mares he got in his first few years would have been very close to the floorboards! In the early days, he improved his mares by at least 10lb, and now Darley, the Wertheimers, Derrinstown, Coolmore, Juddmonte, Moyglare, Cheveley Park are all sending him mares.

He has been very good to us.He has got both high class colts and fillies; he just gets good horses.

H: They have a good attitude and they want to win, that’s the big thing with them. In fairness to him, his results speak for themselves

T: A lot of them are still racing at seven or eight years of age and seem to thrive on racing and love what they do.

A: Kessaar being a home-bred is special for us; we couldn’t help but get excited when he won his novice by 10l before he went onto better things.

When we went to see him while he was in training we were even surprised how well he had done physically and we all immediately said that he would do for us as he had developed into the most gorgeous-looking horse – some have said he like Kodiac only better looking!!

It was a double-edge sword retiring him at the end of his two-year-career as we were taking a high-class horse out of Kodiac’s armoury but, what can I say, we loved him!

He has a few lovely foals on the ground and we look forward to sending him plenty of our own mares.

Kessaar

Kodiac

THE RACING WORLD: competition is good for all

Fairyland: G1-winning two and three-year-old The 95-year-old Mrs Evie Stockwell with her grandson M.V. Magnier, her filly and Aidan O’Brien

Fairyland

THE O’CALLAGHAN family enjoy their racing, and the competitive nature of the sport in Ireland seems only to inspire them more.

T: We are mad keen on racing, we enjoy winning – races are not easily won, but that’s fair enough. It’s the same with the All-Ireland, it’s competitive!

A: If you win in Ireland, or even if you are well placed, it is on the internet and even those in as far away as Hong Kong will know the result and will be on the phone.

Everyone is watching and the standard of racing in Ireland is so high; we are the best in the world.

Ballydoyle and all that comes with it – well we all have to aspire to beat them.

T: The competition is healthy.

A: It raises the standard and, if the bar keeps going up, hopefully we’ll get some bit of the wash of it and go with it. We are lucky to be in the game.

R: It is a good game to be in, there’s a new story every day.

A: It is. You meet people from all walks of life

T: And tomorrow never comes!

The Curragh, providing the family with one of those special days unique to racing.

R: You’re always thinking about tomorrow!

T: It is always tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow; you are never thinking about yesterday.

H: There is the chance of a bit of magic, too

The family had its own sprinkling of magic last season with the victory of Fairyland in the Group 1 Flying Five Stakes at The Curragh on Irish Champions Weekend.

The daughter of Kodiac was bred by the farm and sold at Tattersalls Book 1 to Anne’s nephew M.V. Magnier for 925,00gns, the top-price given for a Kodiac yearling to date.

Magnier purchased the filly on behalf of his grandmother, and Anne’s mother, Mrs Evie Stockwell. Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Fairyland won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes at two and crowned her career with that thrilling victory at A: My mother is in her 95th year and she spends an hour every day with a cup of coffee reading the racing papers.

She said the win would give her another ten years! She can’t wait for the Flat season to start again, the horses keep her going.

R: It was a fairy story, and, Mother, you got some kick out of it!

A: The Curragh was unbelievable and mother never lost faith, considering that the filly had only run the week before.

R: That was one of the great days.

A: Especially being at The Curragh and the day that was in it, for Pat Smullen. The atmosphere was incredible. It was magic wasn’t it? The goodwill and everyone was pulling together; it was a great family day.

And that is what puts the meaning of family into family business, what the O’Callaghans are working to achieve.