The Sport of Kings and Equine Matters part ix

1.9m would be mickey mouse money to Regan.

Whole thing is just bizarre now.

I’d say its more they’re not happy with their stallion roster. No Nay Never is their most expenssive and he is useless. I’d say Camelot is nearly their best in terms of having horses for those real top races.

Broodmare band is so strong they will always be okay though.

I see Bow Echo has been retired. Makes sense in a lot of ways. Wants fast ground and there’s not really a lot more to do bar go around a greyhound track in America and possibly get caught out with a child rider.

Presume Darley will stand him but he isn’t the most preposessing physically. I wouldn’t be surprised if him not being that big is as much to do with it as any injury. Goodwood left a wonderful final impression. Saw Blake say he’d fancy Gstaad on bad ground on Ascot Champions Day but Blake knows what side his bread is buttered on.

I see AMO are going to have jumps horses, standing a good jumps stallion is serious revenue and might allow them to get a few quid back in. They should chance that Mark Johnston horse at it maybe, the dear one that is running in the good 3yo races right now, he is hard as nails…Ancient Eqypt. Juvenile Grade 1 at Leopardstown over Christmas - bang, there’s your jumps stallion.

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Magnier is just proving what a complete hypocrite he is. He’ll withdraw veterinary services from Maurice Regan but still give him $1.9m. If all these billionaire bastards dropped dead, I’d shed no tears.

What are you on about? AMO won’t last five years the way are they going. They probably took 50% of a hurdler for some obscure reason.

Reagan didn’t decide who the buyer was. Its Magnier being Magnier, a lying bastard.

They are buying flat staying bred horses at the sales for big money. The likes of Ancient Egypt is not commercial enough or good enough to stand as a flat stallion, but he might be able to stand as a jumps stallion somewhere and bring a bit of revenue as he is good looking, commercial (in the context of jumping), hardy and has a bit of class. He also gets a trip.

Whether they are there are not in 4 or 5 years I’m not saying whither or which; I’m not even saying this is their strategy, it is just something they could try as they are buying horses with pedigree.

Kia Joorachim might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he is nowhere near as big of a piece of shit as other people in the industry. I for one hope he succeeds; and if he doesn’t I hope he leaves plenty of them with unpaid bills as there are no better a crew to rinse fellas.

Walk In the Park was placed in one of the worst Derbys of all time and never won another race. Jumps sires can ome from anywhere.

Ammo are obviously wedded to this idea of competing with Coolmore so they are buying stalionns pedigrees and foundation type maares every time. Very difficult thing to do, nearly impossible. However the hold he has on professional football is an even more difficult thing to do.

He has achieved a bit, Irish Group 1 winners, big sprint winners, Royall Ascot winners, second in the Derby. Where he could help himself is in using better riders and especially trainers. For example - Charlie Johnston is an objectively poor trainer, why you’d spend over a million on a horse and give it to him to train? nobody would do it. There’s other lads similar on his list. I’d have said his Irish/Braziliaan arm of the operation was the stronger side.

Similarly, why would anyone retain David Egan? or Rossa Ryan at the time he was retained? Made no sense.

I’m not sure could he get the access to the likes of Joseph O’Brien or John gosden to train his horses; but by Jesus you have to avoid the likes of the Charlton, Hannon, Johnston crew. Even Varian, for the cost of his string, isn’t hectic. Boughey will come through for him aalright if they don’t fall out.

I’d like to see him give some older horses to the likes of Emmett Mullins and HDB, Dan Skelton he has a load of these failed horses that these lads could probably do something with because they live and breathe it nd know whaat they are at, unlike the lads above with the combover in their eyes passed out at the champagne bar

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This AMO lad has managed to succeed in football, although some of the contracts with players have been examined and, to put it mildly, looked ropey enough.

But horse racing is a completely different ball game. He’s spent absolute fortunes on horses multi millions, possibly heading towards €100 million over the last few years and he’s going to be a long, long time trying to get that money back, if he ever does.

Just look at the breeding side of the business. There are stallions everywhere competing for mares, and Coolmore have been at this game for generations. Middle distance horses, Derby horses, Gold Cup horses, they’re winning these races by the fucking bucket load and turning the best of them into stallions every year. That’s an operation that has taken decades to build.
Take a horse like that Lambourne one. It can win a Derby and have a very respectable middle distance pedigree, but what is it actually going to stand for? Maybe €5,000 or thereabouts starting off, and that’s after winning one of the biggest races you can win. You need an awful lot of mares at €5,000 a pop before you start recovering the sort of money Kia has thrown around.

That’s the bit I can’t get my head around. He’s paid multiples of what horses were worth for some absolute donkeys. Even if one or two of them eventually turned into reasonably successful stallions, would they ever generate enough money to cover what has already been wasted? I seriously doubt it.

For me, he’s completely out of his lane here. He may have got away with plenty in football, but horse racing and breeding is an entirely different business, and I think he’s being found out as a bluffer. He’s up against people who have spent generations building bloodlines, studs, contacts and expertise.

Look at Godolphin. They’ve had almost unlimited money behind them for decades and they have struggled to lay a glove on Coolmore. And we’re supposed to believe this fat lad is going to arrive in, throw a €100 million around buying horses at inflated prices and suddenly crack the whole thing?

Give me a break. I can’t see it. He’s out of his depth and the whole thing will end in tears.

It takes a long time. Probably 50 years. Juddmonte who are the pinnacle of it must have lost money a long time.

There is no one way though, a lot of it is luck and sliding doors moments.

Fourteen cattle die after water disconnected at Coolmore-owned farm

Gallagher, Conor. Irish Times; Dublin. 12 Aug 2026: 1.

CONOR GALLAGHER

and MARK TIGHE

Fourteen young cattle died of dehydration last week at a farm owned by Coolmore Stud after the animals’ drinking water supply was disconnected.

The incident occurred at a farm in Brodeen in Co Tipperary, near the world-famous Coolmore Stud in Fethard owned by businessman John Magnier.

According to a spokesman for Coolmore, the deaths resulted from ā€œhuman errorā€ after the animals’ drinking water was temporarily disconnected to allow the water trough to be cleaned.

The stud said the deaths took place ā€œduring an intense hot spell last month, the hottest July on recordā€.

ā€œThe incident was immediately reported to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, on Tuesday, 28th July, 2026,ā€ it added.

There was a failure to reconnect the drinking water and to monitor the cattle in a ā€œtimely mannerā€, the company said in a statement.

ā€œEveryone in Coolmore is deeply, deeply upset by what occurred and immediate steps were taken to prevent anything like this ever happening again.ā€

It said it could not comment further due to an ā€œongoing disciplinary processā€.

The Department of Agriculture said it was aware of ā€œan incidentā€ but could not comment on individual cases.

Coolmore is home to several thousand cattle as well as its extensive bloodstock holdings.

It employs about 1,300 people across its extensive horse stud and farm business. Cattle are often mixed in to graze in the same fields as horses.

Coolmore’s website discusses land and feed management strategies it uses.

ā€œPrecision farming aims to improve crop performance and environmental quality,ā€ the website says. It has been reported that Magnier, his family and related Coolmore entities own more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of farmland in Tipperary, with most of that used for horses or as tillage land.

Magnier, the Coolmore boss, was confirmed as an investor in the company that bought the 325-hectare Rockwell Farm in Co Tipperary last year.

Bovinae Investments, which was incorporated last year, registered its ownership of the various plots of land that made up the Rockwell Farm sold by the Spiritan order with a guide price of €21 million.

From people who actually know a little it was always said Magnier was a total genius at horses and off the back of this had extremely intelligent friends who advised him in other aspects of business. He was made look silly talking in rhymes and riddles in court.

This whole thing with o Regan seemed a little odd from the beginning. Even the scrambling to donate a bit of land to tipp gaa screamed like a fella back tracking.

He completely underestimated o Regan and didn’t just have that ability to swallow his pride and walk away from the deal or outbid o Regan.

When you mention Juddmonte, you’re talking about the Saudi royal family that own the vast reserves of oil under the Saudi sands.

.They were able to be so successful because there was no end to their money. So sure, they could squander it away, and they could always wait because there’s no end to their money. That’s not the same as this football agent. He has a limited amount of money. He’s made a few handy bob all right in the football, he thinks he can do the same in the horse racing. We’ll see, mate. You seem to think that he’s going to do it. Let me tell you, he’s not going to do it. He’s wasting his time pissing against the wind. Big operations, like you said, Juddmonte, who have bottomless reserves, which this guy doesn’t, and Godolphin, which have bottomless reserves as well. Neither of them still are anywhere near as successful as Coolmore. That old feckin’ fat lad in AMO hasn’t a hope. He’s wasting his time.and will find out the hard way of making a small fortune in racing is by starting with a big one.

It can’t be underestimated how prestigious Barne Estate is either.

This isn’t any old farm. Its probably the best in the whole of Tipp.

I’d say he knows himself he was complacent and fucked up and its killing him.

Plus he’s spending borrowed money to try and do it. That makes it infinitely harder again.

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That’s news to me. I can’t believe that somebody would actually lend you money to buy a horse. Who was lending him money to buy šŸ«??

Apollo

Yeah was doing a bit of digging on that, and I see this Apollo crowd have lent him. They’re a huge big private equity company that invest in a myriad of things. So, maybe they have a hold on all his other assets, like all those footballing contracts or something. Because if they’re using the yearlings as collateral, they’re wasting their time.

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I know from talking to a p2p operator they can do it as well. It’s called a Stocking Loan. He borrows to buy his stores and pays it off at the end of following the season when he has a few sold. Seems like a very risky operating model to me, but that particular fella has done well.

It was originally for farmers buying cattle to sell on again. Which is generally a more reliable investment that horses.

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Id have far more faith in a cattle dealer in terms of the old adage, buying low and selling high. I think our fat AMO friend is doing the opposite.

He has borrowed £55m at 10.25%

That doesn’t exactly lend itself to the long term type of investment that would be needed to build a proper breeding operation.