John Dwan: NH consignor

Above: John Dwan with Lot 462, top lot at the 2018 Derby Sale. By Milan and out of Monte Solaro the gelding, a half-brother to Altior, made €365,000 bought by MV Magnier. He was pinhooked as a foal by Ballyreddin for €40,000

Market analysis

John Dwan is continually reassessesing the NH bloodstock trade and is now selling most of his stock as foals. We find out more from the man at Ballyreddin Stud

THE ABILITY TO ADAPT is

critical in business and in bloodstock and for John Dwan of Ballyreddin Stud, breeder of Grand National hero One For Arthur and producer of the record-breaking store horse, that meant changing the emphasis of a business that had worked well.

“We changed our model here a little bit over the past few years; we would have normally sold up to 15 store horses per annum but six or seven years ago we changed that and now sell the majority of our stock as foals whether they are home bred or bought in France as foals,” Dwan explains of the shift in direction.

““I felt that perhaps the three-year-old market was overheating and there were too many horses being offered and the demand might not continue at the levels.

“I felt that the risk was too high. You have one customer for a three-year-old store horse so that if there was any dip in the market that was where it would hit hardest,” is his assessment.

“The exposure you have when buying nice foals is anywhere from €25,000 up to €50,000, keeping them for two or three years, and hoping that everything goes well and you have no vet issues.

“I felt it was a high-risk, high-stakes game and that perhaps the better option was to sell foals. Now we only sell between five and ten three-year-olds, and it was simply from a risk assessment view that we changed to selling more foals. That has worked out well so far.”

Dwan prefers not to complicate matters when planning matings for his mares; he has ten NH broodmares on his farm in Kilkenny and keeps a few in France.

Any prospective stallion for a Ballyreddin broodmare has to be in possession of a good race record, move well with good conformation and have a nice pedigree to go along with all of those qualities.

FOR THE younger mares, who are embarking on their life in the breeding paddocks, then it will be an older, proven stallion, while the mares who have proven themselves as producers could go to a younger model, even a first-season sire if he has the right profile.

“My pick of the active stallions at the moment are Walk In The Park, No Risk At All, Doctor Dino, Kapgarde and Crystal Ocean,” he recommends. “Crystal Ocean in my view is one of the most exciting – by Sea The Stars and the highest-rated horse ever to retire straight to a NH stud farm.

“For me as a breeder it is a great opportunity to breed to such a good racehorse and even at this early stage in 2021, there is a positive word about his first-crop of foals. I’ve spoken to a number of breeders who have foals on the ground by him and they are delighted with them.

“I’ll be using him this year for two or three mares, so I’m hanging my shirt on him!” he laughs.

Jukebox Jury and Vadamos are also on Dwan’s list for his mares in 2021.

Last year Dwan bred and sold the most expensive foal from the first crop of Coolmore’s Group 1 Irish St Leger and Ascot Gold Cup winner Order Of St George.

The colt made €90,000 to Aiden Murphy at an incredibly robust Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale and the youngster illustrates Dwan’s breeding principles perfectly – his dam Tetou, by Peintre Celebre, has already bred the Listed Cheltenham bumper winner Tetlami.

“If you look at the sales results, young stock by a small number of stallions make the money and it’s a hard sale for the rest.

“I use the top four or five stallions here in Ireland and also take a couple of mares to France to the good, proven stallions there.

“Then I will try to suit each mare to the particular stallion based on conformation, size and what might have worked before.

“Once they are good moving and athletic horses with good pedigrees, I don’t dig into it much deeper than that because you can get completely bogged down. If you get two or three very good foals in a particular year, then it keeps the ball rolling.”

Dwan regularly comes up with just that, whether with homebred foals or those he buys in France, and his select store sales offerings this summer include some beautifully-bred fillies.

The recent Cheltenham Festival represented something of a triumph for mares and proved the success of the schemes that were put in place to make breeding and buying fillies a more profitable enterprise.

In some respects now is probably a better time than ever to have a NH filly to sell.

He comments: “The programme for mares’ races has improved over the last few years andhas really benefitted breeders because it has boosted the attractiveness of a nice filly andhas increased their worth.

“A nice filly with a bit of a page is just as attractive now as a gelding, if you have a nice filly now it can be is an easier sell.”

He has a few examples of just that for sale in both Ireland and France this year with his pick of the Irish stores a Flemensfirth filly out of the dual Grade 3-winning hurdler Morning Run, who was also placed in a Grade 2 contest. She is just the second foal out of the King’s Theatre mare, and her fullsister made €80,000 as a foal last December at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale. She is pencilled in for the same company’s Derby Sale.

The highest-price foal by Order Of St George was sold by Ballyreddin at the Tattersalls Ireland November Sale for €90,000. He is a half-brother to the Listed bumper winner Tetlami

His homebred Kayf Tara half-sister to Grand National winner One For Arthur is another three-year-old filly he singles out, and the half-sister to James Nash’s Graded -placed chaser Forza Milan has been accepted for both flagship store sales.

At Arqana’s summer sale of NH two-yearolds he picks a Kapgarde filly from the family of Hammersly Lake, Far West and Fou Et Sage.

“There is also a Kamsin filly out of Minirose, a winning Mansonnien mare,” he adds. “She is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Irish Saint and Listedplaced Welsh Saint.

“Minirose has been very good to us. Her Martaline two-year-old gelding made €140,000 at the Arqana two-year-old sale last summer and her filly foal by Flemensfirth made €80,000 to Peter Molony at Goffs last December. Kamsin is a German horse who stood in France and is now with Michael Shefflin in Anshoon Stud; he has a very successful strike rate in France with his progeny,” Dwan explains.