Lowry’s risky investment is paying off

After tribunal findings and a Revenue bill, Michael Lowry’s luck seems to be turning, as his mare stands to turn around his financial fortunes, writes investigative correspondent Conor Ryan

HIS luck was bound to turn. He had to sell assets and re-mortgage his property. He was forced to make a €1.4m settlement with the Revenue Commissioners for his and his company’s tax evasion.

He has spoken about struggling to pay his bills and keep his refrigeration business going.

He has been landed with an enormous legal bill by a tribunal which found he secretly took £147,000 from businessman Denis O’Brien.

This was in exchange for using his influence as communications minister to gerrymander the competition to operate the country’s second mobile phone licence.

All this was separate to the house extension that was built for him by Ben Dunne.

And then, with a landslide win for Fine Gael and Labour, he lost his incredible influence as a lynchpin independent TD in government.

But now Michael Lowry, the shamed former communications’ minister, has hit on money.

Eighteen months after the Moriarty Tribunal report was published, he is looking at a mare that has the potential to turn around his financial fortunes.

This is an animal he acquired after one of his darkest hours. But last month she shot up in value due to the winning exploits of her two-year-old son.

The mare, Wedding Morn, came into the north Tipperary TD’s possession in time for the 2008 breeding season but according to registration records she still boards at Coolmore.

Last month her colt, Probably, won the prestigious two-year-old Railway Stakes at the Curragh.

Immediately, this sent the value of the TD’s mare soaring.

If the record of Probably’s half-brother, Mastercraftsman, is a guide, upcoming seasonal sales will dwarf the €410,000 Mr Lowry has already earned from selling three of Wedding Morn’s foals between 2009 and 2011.

She is 11 and could continue producing racehorses for years.

When Mastercraftsman won the same race in 2008 and snatched two others shortly afterwards, his younger sister went to market in a depressed September sale in Goff’s and fetched €1m.

Fate has it that Mr Lowry’s fortune has come at the expense of the ordinarily wily Coolmore.

The world-beating south Tipperary outfit had bred, trained, and raced the mare with little success.

She was sold in 2004 to Longueville Bloodstock, a company owned by the wife of one of Coolmore’s key advisers, Paul Shanahan, for €129,000.

The mare had won nothing in her two years of racing.

She went to post seven times, and three of her outings were at the Curragh.

Then, after her first three foals faltered on the track, she was sold for an undisclosed sum to the former minister, who had just settled his affairs and paid his penalties to the Revenue Commissioners.

Breeding records show that she still boards at Coolmore and has given birth to at least three foals under Mr Lowry’s banner.

The youngest of these came to market late last year as a foal and was offloaded for €61,000. Probably, and his older Lowry-bred brother Canary Wharf, raised €200,000 and €145,000 respectively.

The fall off in 2011 underscored the risky investment strategy Mr Lowry pursued for his well-bred mare in the aftermath of his €1.4m settlement with the Revenue Commissioners.

The sensible guide given to breeders, by the Thoroughbred Breeders Associations, is that owners should look to spend one third of the value of their mare to get her covered.

Thoroughbred stallion fees range from a few thousand euro to in excess of €150,000 for a handful of top sires across the continent.

In breeding from Danehill Dancer Mr Lowry opted for one of the most consistent, but costly, stallions on the market.

In 2008, the first breeding season he had control of Wedding Morn, Danehill Dancer cost €115,000 per visit.

In line with the rest of the market, he has since had his fee reduced to €65,000 a visit.

As a loose guide this would have valued Mr Lowry’s mare at more than €300,000 when he acquired it in 2008.

Initially, the results barely justified the nomination. Canary Wharf was born in Apr 2009 and was sold the following November for €145,000.

That was all before Probably set pulses racing at the Curragh.

The gamble Mr Lowry took is encapsulated in the success of Probably compared with the poor return from his elder brother and sisters who, rather unusually, all shared the same mother (Wedding Morn) and father (Danehill Dancer).

Two of Wedding Morn’s offspring were sent to market before she came into the control of Mr Lowry.

Suakin Dancer was sold in 2006 as a foal for €203,000 in 2006. And High Holborn, a colt, was sold the following year for €51,000.

These were both listed as having been bred by Longueville Bloodstock.

However, under its new owner, Suakin Dancer did not live up to expectations. She raced eight times and her best finished was eighth out of 13 runners at Sailsbury in Jul 2009.

Her younger brother, High Holborn, had similar fortune with no wins from 10 starts.

Wedding Morn also had a foal in 2008 but she has never raced and has not appeared at the sales.