RIP
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Former Paddy Power winner Castlebawn West RIP
A sad story coming out of Samcro’s Tinahely romp
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Rip
Warning, contains pictures of midgets.
How Manchester United’s history has been shaped by Rock of Gibraltar
Power struggle between Irish owners and Sir Alex Ferguson over great racehorse opened the door to a Glazer takeover
ByJim White24 October 2022 • 9:20pm
Sir Alex Ferguson, pictured in 2002, with his horse Rock Of Gibraltar after the it landed The St. James Palace Stakes CREDIT: Julian Herbert/Getty Image
He would have been blissfully unaware of it as he belted down the finishing straight or spent his retirement busily siring 16 Group One winners, but Rock of Gibraltar was the horse who changed the course of football history.
The Irish stallion, who died this week at the Coolmore stud in County Tipperary at the age of 23, was at the centre of a legal dispute which enabled Malcolm Glazer stealthily to secure ownership of Manchester United. Which means had the Rock not been quite so good a horse, had he not been so enormously valuable a bit of bloodstock, the Old Trafford roof would not be leaking, there would be no £600 million debt still hanging over the club and FC United of Manchester would never have come into being.
The Rock was foaled in a good year for United: 1999. And it quickly became clear he had real potential as a runner. Together with his Coolmore partner JP McManus, his owner, John Magnier, had grown close to United manager Alex Ferguson, even taking his advice to build up an investment in the club, then a plc. Racing was Ferguson’s principal form of relaxation and he had been increasingly interested in owning horses.
Magnier, appreciating the public relations value of an association with the United manager, saw an opportunity and invited him to become involved in the Rock; the horse was registered as co-owned by Ferguson and Magnier’s wife Sue. And, almost as soon as the Rock started competing, Ferguson was picking up some substantial equine silverware, pictured beaming with delight as the horse, his jockey wearing silks in the United colours, won seven consecutive Group One races, beating Mill Reef’s long-standing record.
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The 2000 Guineas, the St James Palace Stakes and the Sussex Stakes were all accumulated in a glorious burst across the summer of 2002. This was some horse. No wonder Ferguson was beaming with delight. But almost from the moment the Rock was retired from running, his smile disappeared. It was estimated, with a record like the Rock had achieved, that he could earn more than £200 million in stud fees for his owners. Ferguson liked the sound of that.
The problem was, Magnier and McManus were way too shrewd to split the rewards. Ferguson, they explained, was co-owner only for the racing part of the Rock’s career, entitled to a split of the prize money. Stud was very different. An enraged Ferguson issued legal proceedings in 2003. The reply was unequivocal: “Coolmore Stud and John Magnier consider the action to be without merit and it will be vigorously defended,” was the extent of their public comment. And vigorous was an understatement.
Using their joint vehicle Cubic Expression, Magnier and McManus quickly built up their holding in United to 28.7 per cent. It was done to make a point: when it comes to demonstration of relative power, here they were building up sufficient stake to make themselves Ferguson’s boss. In 2004, they flexed their muscles by issuing a list of 99 questions ahead of the board annual meeting about the way United was being run. It was turning nasty. So nasty, Roy Keane was collared on a trip back to Ireland and told to advise his manager of the seriousness of the position he was adopting.
Keane tried to dissuade Ferguson from making enemies as powerful as the Coolmore lot. But the Boss was not to be moved. Eventually, however, an agreement was reached. Ferguson settled for a one-off payment reckoned to be about £2.5 million, rather less than the amount the horse made as he sired an astonishing 77 Group winners, including Samitar, Seventh Rock, Mount Nelson and Society Rock.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Glazer was stealthily accumulating United shares in a bid to take over the club. In May 2005 there was just one block standing in his way of gaming sufficient holding to trigger a takeover: the shares earned by Cubic Expression. With the dispute settled, no longer needing leverage over Ferguson and without any emotional attachment to the club, Magnier and McManus happily accepted Glazer’s offer of £3 a share. And why not; it represented a substantial profit, tens of millions earned in just a couple of years.
So it was that Glazer took control of United, establishing in the process an ownership model of foisting humongous borrowings on a debt-free operation while sitting back and counting the dividends. Whether he would have been able to build up a sufficient shareholding without the Irish block remains conjecture. But Rock of Gibraltar certainly made it easier for him to mop up the holdings. For sure, the horse may have remained gloriously ignorant of his culpability, but there will be plenty of Manchester United fans with reason not to mourn his passing.
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Dziękuję Ci Komrade
Niema sprawy
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Bold, Fergie isn’t that small
He’s a small man though. JP mugged him off good and proper.
He didnt really.
Fergie thought he could mix it with the big boys. I’d say the lads had a good laugh over it
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Shur The Boss got 2.5m plus half the prize money for doing nothing.
Good aul War of Attrition. Lived to 26 apparently. An old favourite of mine from my college days.
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Grand Jury RIP - took he looked ok after fall at second last but unfortunately not
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Ah shite. That dreadful
Copperless 
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Looked a world beater when he won swinton
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Monty’s Pass RIP
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Unexpected Depth