National Hunt breeder Bryan Mayoh looks ahead to the Winter Flat and National Hunt Sale
1. Tell us about your background and how you got into the industry? I was first introduced to the sport by my uncle who loved to have a flutter on a Saturday. I started breeding guinea pigs because I couldn’t afford to breed racehorses. Eventually I accumulated enough money to start breeding racehorses which was around 25 years ago.
2. You are consigning with Tattersalls Ireland since 2004. What attracts you to our sales? The big benefit of trading through Tattersalls Ireland is the country in which you are located. The best market for National Hunt horses is in Ireland. As a consignor selling a horse in Ireland enhances the chances of it achieving its full potential, because most of the people that purchase them are skilled horse men and women. The development of the four-year-old point-to-point programme gets the horses racing earlier. I think that gives the horses I sell the best chance to be good horses. My goal is to breed good racehorses, but for that to happen the horse has got to end up in the right hands.
3. You consign under the Ballincurrig House Stud banner. Tell me about your relationship with Michael Moore? I met Michael a long time ago. Michael and his head girl Nuala Healy are excellent at prepping their horses for sales. Michael is also skilled at getting the horses sold. My relationship with Michael is a strange one ! It seems his prime job is to depress me about the prospects of selling the horses. But he is a realist. My job is to work out how much of what he telling me is true and how much is setting the expectation right. At the end we hope to get the right reserve, and get the horse sold to the best person to go on with the horse.
4. You have bred lots 9 and 93 in next week’s Winter Flat and National Hunt Sale. Tell us a bit about them? Both are colts out of smart race mares. Lot 9 is out of Anythingforlove who was a Grade 2 winner, while Lot 93 is out of Lifeboat Mona was a dual black type winner. The disadvantage is that they are both chestnuts, and there is a distinct prejudice against chestnut horses at the sales! The ironic thing is the second best chaser I ever saw was Flyingbolt, while L'Esgargot, and Annie Power were also top class racehorses. I feel prejudice against chestnut horses is a load of ***** (a word that geldings don't have!).
5. Both of your yearlings are by the St Leger winner Logician. Explain your thinking in choosing the sire? I am part of a syndicate that own Logician. Five of us purchased him when he was available for stud. All five of us breed National Hunt horses and all five have good mares that give him a chance of succeeding. He was a top-class racehorse. He was the second highest rated three-year-old in 2019. He was struck down with an illness, hence the reason he was absent for 12 months after winning the English St Leger. John Gosden fully expected him to develop into a high-class middle distance four-year-old, but he never recovered fully from his illness. He has got a lot of very well-bred horses from the people in the syndicate. I plan to keep some of his fillies back to race them. I’d be confident that pinhookers that invest in his yearlings, will have three-year-olds in 2027 by a sire with reasonable winners.
6. Both Anythingforlove and Lifeboat Mona were smart race mares. How did they end up back in your hands? I didn’t sell Anythingforlove because her value had been significantly enhanced with the exploits of Sizing John. I leased her to Foxtrot Racing, and the agreement was that once she turned eight, I would start to breed from her. I sold Lifeboat Mona at the November National Hunt Sale in 2010 for €600! That was the day after selling Sizing John to John Bleahen for €16,000. Low and behold four years later I noticed that Lifeboat Mona won her four-year-old maiden in Ireland. She was subsequently purchased by Paul Nicholls, and won her first two racecourse starts. I followed her closely over the next two years, and had it in my mind that I would like to buy her back. Her final start was in the Grade 1 Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham, which I really wanted her to win, but I couldn't have afforded to buy her back if she did. She picked up a career ending injury at Cheltenham and I got into negotiations to buy her back. In the end I did purchase her back for 100 times more than I sold her for at the 2010 November National Hunt Sale !
7. La Perrotine is the dam of Sizing John and Anythingforlove. How did you acquire her? I acquired La Perrotine in a bar after a sale from Howard Johnson. I once bought two fillies at Tattersalls Ireland that I put into training with Howard. Had I not bought those two fillies, I’d never have met Howard Johnson, I’d never have been having a drink with him, I’d never have purchased La Perrotine and I’d never have bred Sizing John ! She went wrong as a six-year-old, but I had an inkling that she would make a good broodmare. I’ve kept all the fillies out of her, and sold some of the colts. Her first foal was a good filly that was black type placed but she died young.
8. The achievements of Sizing John must have given you an immense sense of pride as a breeder? The day Sizing John passed the post in front in the Cheltenham Gold Cup was the best moment of my life. My wife Dorte and I watched the race in the parade ring, and I have a photo of us that we took from the TV coverage raising our arms in celebration immediately afterwards. It is the dream that most National Hunt breeders chase, and being greedy I would love to experience it again. I went to see him at Robert Powers and he could not be in better hands.
9. What else have you coming through in the family? My principal when breeding horses is that i’m not guided by commercial sires. I breed horses to obtain the best horse I can, but I don’t want to go bust trying to achieve that.
If I have a colt I sell them as foals. We have one exception – a colt foal out of Anythingforlove by Walk In The Park. He was too small to sell as a foal so we will hold onto him and race him as a three-year-old entire in France. He is currently a two-year-old and in pre-training with Denis Leahy. The dream is to win a black type race and make him a stallion. It’s a silly dream but typical for us breeders. I sold a Crystal Ocean foal at last year’s November National Hunt Sale out of Deadringerforlove (Anythingforlove’s full-sister). I had a high opinion of him and Niall Bleahen purchased him for €33,000. Niall showed me his comments after the sale, and I hope the one day he can repeat the Gold Cup dream.
10. You are passionate about developing a framework to challenge the French system. This year will see the reintroduction of two-year-olds to the Derby Sale, and academy hurdles introduced to the race programme in Ireland. As a breeder do you feel these changes can help stem the tide for Irish and British bred horses? I do lots of research into breeding. It was obvious 15 years ago that the French bred horses were starting to outperform their Irish and British counterparts. As a breeder I was keen to establish if there was a breeding explanation as to why these French horses were doing better. My results illustrated that the French are breaking horses earlier, schooling horses earlier and winning earlier.
To challenge their dominance the same approach needs to be implemented. Most of the best horses are coming through the four-year-old maiden point-to-point route. The three-year-old academy hurdles will encourage trainers to get horses jumping earlier. I think Ireland would benefit from introducing three-year-old maiden races within the point-to-point programme. This all needs to happen if we are to restore Anglo-Irish National Hunt breeding to its former position.