New bloodstock business proves winner for Lowry

Michael Lowry, who is battling tax and debt problems, has been back in the winners’ circle with his new bloodstock business.

The Glebeland Farm Partnership, registered in the name of Mr Lowry and two of his children, has already had one winner this summer and scored a number of places.

A third horse in its stable has been entered for its first outing in Cork tomorrow.

Ownership registrations show that Mallowney, an eight-year-old gelding, was registered as the property of Glebeland on February 27.

It had previously won four times and secured six places before it was acquired by Mr Lowry’s partnership.

Since then it has had three places, earning a combined €9,305.

However its biggest pay day came at the Punchestown Festival on May 1 when it ran in the blue silks, with a yellow inverted triangle, of Mr Lowry.

It started at 8-1, took the lead at the last and won the €32,500 first prize under Davy Russell.

Afterwards Timothy Doyle, the horse’s trainer, said the gelding had disappointed in its earlier races but had been running well all year.

The Glebeland Farm Partnership also owns a French horse called Capbreton which has finished second at two Irish point-to-points this year.

Tomorrow a five-year-old filly, Honeybrunch, will run for the first time at the last race at the Cork end-of-summer meeting. The horse is the offspring of Honeybunch, a mare Mr Lowry owned as part of the MALM partnership.

In 2012 Mr Lowry established a new company, Glebeland Farms, as an unlimited company. At the time he told the Irish Times he chose to make it unlimited to avoid unnecessary media scrutiny of its affairs.

Mr Lowry has had considerable success in the bloodstock business in recent years but redirected his activities in late 2012.

In December that year he earned more than €800,000 when he sold a mare in foal and her yearling from a season earlier at Tattersalls.

These high prices were achieved after a two-year-old he bred from the same mare, Wedding Morn, won the Railway Stakes.

Away from the track Mr Lowry is facing a number of financial battles.

In March a €650,000 judgement that had been registered against the independent TD, by the accountancy firm that helped organise his finances for the Moriarty Tribunal, was vacated.

This was to allow a full hearing in the High Court into the claim by BBT Chartered Accountants that he owed the firm €1.79m.

Mr Lowry has separately launched a High Court challenge to the Moriarty Tribunal’s decision to only award him a third of his multi-million euro costs incurred during his interaction with it.

Separately Mr Lowry is facing trial for allegedly filing incorrect tax returns in 2002 and 2007. In July the State made an application to have his trial moved from Tipperary to Dublin because of fears a jury in his native county may be biased.

Mr Lowry was contacted but did not comment.