Chris Kilroy playing the waiting game with breeding speculation

Marking down the months and years between investing in mares and seeing if they have anything worthwhile to show for themselves is too much time wasted for many.

In the case of businessman Chris Kilroy, whose foray under ORS Bloodstock has been seen in evidence already this season by smart winners UAE Jewel and Chasing Dreams, it would be little more than waiting for the kettle to boil compared with the day job.

"The game we’re in basically is promoting land and it takes a long time to go through the system; the last three or four deals have taken me between 15 and 18 years," he elaborates.

"It’s a very drawn-out process in identifying land way, way ahead of where the planners are probably going to think of putting it, and just slowly trying to get it into a plan.

"Breeding, being a sort of three or four-year cycle to get it going, was kind of short-term, as far as I was concerned."

Kilroy founded what became a chain of estate agents over several decades before selling them to Bairstow Eves, hence was able to start having the odd horse in training, starting off with his only jumper with Derek Weeden in 1975.

He supported the likes of Sir Henry Cecil, Barry Hills and Luca Cumani, his most notable moment being with Richard Hannon’s Gran Alba, who was sixth in Nashwan’s Derby and became a minor jumps stallion.

"He flattered to deceive round Tattenham Corner - that dream lived for no more than 15 seconds but it was there," he recalls wryly.

"I said to my wife that we weren’t literally the only Mr and Mrs in the ring but there weren’t many - there was the Duke of this, Lord that, Sheikh someone else.

"We’ve been rolling on over the years. You’re always striving to find that right combination of you, the horse and the trainer, but they’ve all been jolly good."

Chasing Dreams was out on her own at the Craven meetingCredit: Edward Whitaker

He gravitated to syndicates and had shares with Highclere, leading him to hatch an idea with its supremo, John Warren. Together they spent 300,000gns on Gemstone, a Listed-winning Galileo mare for Aidan O’Brien who is from the family of Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Bachelor Duke.

She has already produced Bedrock, the surprise conqueror of Samcro at Down Royal and her fourth foal, from a cover by Dubawi, was UAE Jewel, unbeaten in two starts for Roger Varian and recently minted at Listed level after taking the Newmarket Stakes.

"Over the years we’ve had the odd dabble but we’re basically always breeding from what you’d call poor-quality stock," he says.

"I asked John to buy me a mare in foal and to pinhook two foals the following year, he said how about going 50-50. I was quite flattered and thought it was really good - to share the risks is always good in any business and they’ve got the knowledge.

"We sold UAE Jewel for 400,000gns and Nassya, another Dubawi, for 525,000gns, so financially she’s been very good, and a lot can turn with this horse. Fingers crossed."

Such speculation in the thoroughbred market can prove folly if not researched assiduously. Kilroy decided to concentrate on the highbrow and to partner up with other foremost practitioners of the industry, combining with both the Duke of Roxburghe at Floors Castle and with Lord and Peter Stanley’s New England Stud.

With the latter he acquired the stakes-placed Refuse To Bend mare A Huge Dream and a visit to Starspangledbanner resulted in the 750,000gns sale of a filly who became Chasing Dreams, seemingly a Queen Mary prospect for Godolphin after her striking debut win at the Craven meeting.

In all, the Kilroy broodmare band numbers around half a dozen and could one day include his only current horse in training, the Duke’s Camelot filly Mystic Meg, if premonitions of black type are correct.

ORSes To Follow: Chris Kilroy’s foundation mares

A Huge Dream
10yo bay mare Refuse To Bend-Great Joy (Grand Lodge)

Progeny:

• Mrs Gallagher [won Listed Lansdown Stakes, Listed Polonia Stakes]
• Tone The Barone [won Windsor handicap on April 29]
• Chasing Dreams [won Newmarket maiden on April 16]
• Yearling colt and filly foal by Dark Angel

Gemstone
11yo bay mare Galileo-Kincob (Kingmambo)

Progeny:

• Bedrock [won Grade 2 WKD Hurdle, Grade 3 Horse & Jockey Hotel Hurdle]
• Sparkle [sold for 190,000gns]
• Nassya [sold for 525,000gns]
• UAE Jewel [won Listed Newmarket Stakes]
• Nugget [unraced two-year-old Siyouni colt with Richard Hannon]
• Yearling Kingman colt

Scarborough Fair
9yo chestnut mare Pivotal-Kinnaird (Dr Devious)

Progeny:

• Mahfoodh [sold for 240,000gns]
• Barend Boy [won Lingfield handicap]
• Sycamore [unraced two-year-old Kingman colt sold for 100,000gns with Martyn Meade]
• Yearling Camelot filly

Map Of Heaven
11yo bay mare Pivotal-Superstar Leo (College Chapel)

Progeny:

• Pennsylvania Dutch [won three handicaps in April]
• Proceeding [sold for 90,000gns]
• Saint Lucie [two-year-old Zoffany filly sold to America for 120,000gns]
• Yearling Fastnet Rock filly, Kodiac foal

They are all registered under the ORS brand, along with his land company. It has already been pointed out to its chairman that the name does sound like a cockney alternative to the 'gee gees', even if it is actually the rather more mundane Old Road Securities.

"We were looking for a little bit of diversification out of the property business, we thought we’d put a toe in the water, and then two, and take it seriously and sensibly," he explains. "It will expand, but not to the point of going crazy. The intention is to take it slowly, obviously if you’ve got one horse you’ll pitch up with three, and my wife keeps telling me 'count your fingers'!

"To my way of thinking, the nearer you can get to the top end, the better your chances, but often it doesn’t matter how good the mare or the stallion is, if they don’t come out right, you’ve got a problem! Most businesses are risky but to try to aim with good quality mares and stallions, you’ve got a bit of a chance if they come okay."

Chris Kilroy has spent his career in the property and land industry

If Kilroy, 75 this month, is not yet an instantly recognisable figure in the thoroughbred world, it is a different case in Bedfordshire society. He has always lived and worked in the county, becoming an estate agent 'stamp boy' as a 16-year-old in 1960 and starting his own firm three years later.

From Biggleswade to Leighton Buzzard, he put in the miles by presiding over civic affairs as High Sheriff and then Deputy Lieutenant, with such dedication earning him an MBE in 2017 for local charitable work.

So any suggestion that a Bedfordshire postcode might lack the cache of, say, an SW1 or the BH13 of the millionaires’ playground of Sandbanks would earn a swift rebuttal.

"It’s a county that’s kind of lost out in many ways because it’s passed by the A1 and it’s passed by the M1; a lot of people say 'Bedfordshire, that’s Luton', and you say it is, but there's Bedford. If you go east-west, you’ll probably come round Bedford but if you go north you’ll bypass it.

"It’s a great place to live, we’ve got a wonderful train service into London and nice people live here.

"The funny thing is what was the scar of Bedfordshire was the brickworks, we probably had well over 100 chimneys, we’ve currently got four and they’re talking about taking three down.

"All of the brick pits are now filled up as lakes and Marston Vale, where land was bought for planting, is now a forest. Move forward 50 years, you’ll see what was the ugliest part of Bedfordshire will be among the most beautiful."

That, in a nutshell, is why Chris Kilroy is always thinking ahead.