Bloodlines run deep in thriving US-Irish thoroughbred relationship
Mares and foals are led out to their paddocks by staff and students at the Irish National Stud in Co Kildare. More and more trainers in America are attending Irish sales. The Orby sale (Goffs, October 2024) had about 60 individual American buyers.
“The thoroughbred exists,” observed Frederico Tesio many years ago, “because its selection has depended, not on experts, technicians, or zoologists, but on a piece of wood; the winning post of the Epsom Derby.”
The esteemed Italian breeder knew what he was talking about. Tesio was one of the most innovative equine thinkers of the last century and produced a host of champion racehorses and stallions, including Nearco whose grandson Northern Dancer, became a pivotal influence in the emergence of Ireland as a preeminent player in the global bloodstock arena when the great Vincent O’Brien recognised his potential as a sire and more importantly, a ‘sire of sires’. O’Brien’s foresight paved the road on which the Coolmore Stud empire still travels and, unwittingly, made Charles O’Neill’s challenging job just a tiny bit easier.
O’Neill is CEO of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing (ITM). Among his many objectives in the coming years is to sustain hard-won momentum in the North American market for horses produced in Ireland. Unlike Tesio, he recognises that the outcome of his strategy depends as much on warm blooded people skills than it does on cold wooden winning posts.
“Business in America has experienced huge growth and is becoming hugely important,” explains O’Neill. “They are moving more and more to turf racing, and we have the product they need. The market in America is getting stronger and stronger. We’re like we're a concierge service. Our job is to make sure all they do (American buyers) is have a good time. We will help them organise transport; we will help them with their hotels, we will help them go wherever they need to go. It's to make sure when they come to the sales all have to do is buy a horse.”
A modest and significant oversimplification of the role and impact of his Kildare-based organisation which lies at the beating heart of a complex and nationally significant economic enterprise.
Among all the uses that Irish people find to do with horses the breeding and sale of thoroughbred racehorses provides the largest economic contribution. And with the global market in a state of perpetual flux and change, ITM are keenly focussed on geographic risk diversification such as finding increased revenue streams in the USA. The ITM strategy is beginning to grow juicier fruit.
Transatlantic demand for all types of Irish horse, from unraced yearlings to fully made racehorses is strengthening. Even the niche National Hunt sector is beginning to wiggle following the success of Hewick in the American version of the Grand National a couple of years ago.
“If you have a filly that runs well in a maiden race in Ireland then it's immediately a very valuable commodity in America where it will be good enough to run at group level,” continues O’Neill. “The demand for this kind of horse has become an awful lot stronger in the last six years. In 2014, seventy went to the States, last year it was 200. Of those, 142 went through public auction, generating €15 million in sales. In 2014, the figure was €5 million.
"The number of people coming to Ireland to the sales is growing too, it's really taken off in the last three or four years. We now need those horses that have gone over the need to start winning at graded level. More and more trainers in America are copping onto this. At the Orby sale (Goffs, October), we had about 60 individual American buyers.”
ITM operates as an independent subsidiary that draws half its funding from Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and the other half from commercial breeding industry stakeholders. Its overriding mission is to nourish and support a complex and expensive supply chain that begins when a stallion invites a mare over for dinner and a movie and ends, hopefully, with their offspring powering past a winning post, wooden or otherwise, in first place.
A key driver of success is through combining rock-hard business acumen with softer people skills. O’Neill, who travels to various epicentres of American racing and breeding six times a year, recognises the criticality of relationship development with prospective clients.
“When you have the success of an organisation like Coolmore then that helps you build a brand for the Irish bred horse around the world, but the diaspora is really important too,” says O’Neill. “The Irish embassies are the greatest thing that we have around the world. I have every ambassador in the countries that we do business on speed dial and they're there at the touch of a button to help to do anything from getting visas to hosting a dinner, I can't speak highly enough of how good they are. Then we have a lot of very good Irish guys in America that will introduce me to the next owner, there’s always an introduction.
"They’re always marking your card, always there to tell you who the new movers and shakers are, what are their likes and dislikes. So, when you make the initial contact, you can strike up a conversation very easily.”
The importance of success for ITM in America is important for the Irish horse industry, which is wide, deep and eclectic. There are almost 7,000 breeders operating 15,000 mares in all 32 counties on the island. These range in size from a farmer with a couple of horses in a field out the out the back to global giants such as Darley and Coolmore. Four-fifths of Irish breeders have fewer than two mares while Coolmore and Darley account for over 20% of all foals produced here.
Charles O’Neill is evangelical in his belief future demand for the Irish horse, globally and in the United States, and confident that the top-line growth in breeding and sales revenues will benefit all levels of the industry.
“A lot of trainers are now seeing more and more American owners in their yards right now, and that is huge,” he says. Part of what we do in ITM is to try to get these people leave the horses here for longer, wait for them to get a bit stronger so that when they hit America, they're stronger and ready to rock'n'roll straight away.”
Like any other clear-thinking executive involved in a global business, Charles O’Neill confronts the uncertainties of 2025 with a sense both of trepidation and optimism. But every time that elusive winning post comes into sight, somebody goes and moves it. With a new political administration recently installed in Washington, the possibility of trade tariffs and economic isolation has become a real and present danger. Does he feel this is a threat to the Irish horse industry?
“We have to keep watching these things,” he recognises. "If there are tariffs, it will put a cap on how much people can spend but there will still be a demand from owners racing in America for really good solid turf horses. We have that product here and once they keep going over there doing well and winning, people will keep coming through. There may be tariffs, I hope to God not, but there’s not a lot we can do about it, but we will continue to find ways to work with these people.”
