Bargain hunter Patrick Moyles happy to share in the glory of 5,000gns purchase

Micro-scale trainer Michael Browne is sure to become a figure of interest for a wider section of the media for as long as Logo Hunter remains in his care, with the exciting three-year-old one of only five horses in the loquacious Irishman's Tipperary yard.

Browne has already been quick to credit the two men behind the discovery of one of the most promising young sprinters in Europe for just 5,000gns.

Patrick Moyles, Logo Hunter's owner, identified him through a long-standing partnership with Cristiano Martins, a Brazilian-born horseman who consigns at the breeze-ups as C.A.J. Stables and is also Browne's neighbour.

The son of Brazen Beau had run a couple of times for Ger Lyons as a juvenile. After having a breathing operation, he won on his comeback at Dundalk in March and swiftly progressed to a convincing victory in the Listed Sole Power Sprint at Naas.

"Years ago I sold Cristiano a horse, he sold him on and was lucky, he won a few races, and we just became good friends and business partners out of that," explains Moyles.

"We buy a good few yearlings together to breeze, we’ve done that and I suppose been pretty successful with it, and we do race the odd horse that didn’t get sold or whatever else.

"We were at the [Tattersalls horses-in-training] sales last year and Cristiano knew Logo Hunter because he had broken him for the previous owner, so we both kept an eye on him.

"We didn’t think we’d be able to buy him, to be honest I thought he’d make a lot more money, but we got him home, found out a bit more about him and got his wind done.

Patrick Moyles (left) and Cristiano Martins have been involved in horses together for a few yearsCredit: Tattersalls Ascot

"The plan with him and another horse, The Cola Kid, was to give them a few runs and maybe cut back on the breezers a little with Covid and everything going on - we didn’t know how the year would progress - but thankfully everything has gone brilliantly."

Moyles, who keeps cows and horses at his farm in County Mayo and does some pinhooking, would be entitled to crow about this particularly shrewd piece of business but remains thoroughly modest about it all.

He says: "I suppose the years at the sales and being around the ring at Fairyhouse and Goffs and Newmarket and Doncaster…maybe not to this extent but we’ve seen it [with] loads of our friends. It’s the same crew at the sales all the time that have got lucky on different occasions, so it’s nice when it’s your turn and you get a chance."

Moyles explains that Martins rides Logo Hunter in daily exercise and feedback across the board has been fairly exceptional.

He says: "He’s not a big tank of a horse or anything like that but since his wind was done his work has been brilliant, he’s never had an off day, thank God. He’s just one of those genuine horses that puts his head down every day and tries his best, so that’s a big help.

"Seamie Heffernan, who has ridden him in all his races here, loved him, and said he’s definitely a Group 1 horse. He even said that in the interview before Logo Hunter ran in Dundalk. You’re delighted to hear it at the time and you’re hoping he’s right with the experience he has, and so far he looks right."

Plans for the future are a little cautious. As a gelding Logo Hunter is not eligible for the Commonwealth Cup and Browne has already anticipated that a buyer will come in for him.

Moyles says: "We didn’t enter him in any of the sales but he is of course for sale, the same as everything else.

"Sure, if he was in a big yard with bigger owners he’d have been sold for multiples of what he cost, but the plan is to keep the head down, pick a few races for him. If an offer comes along that we can’t refuse then he'll go, to keep the operation on the road, but I'd like to keep him, at least for the summer.

"He’s won good prize-money already and the plan at the minute is to aim him at another Listed race, probably at Cork early next month, then to go on and enter him in a Group race later in the summer, either in Ireland or the UK."

Even with just Logo Hunter, The Cola Kid and another unraced horse, Moyles is the majority owner in Browne's yard. With the trainer describing their Listed win as the greatest feeling in his career, Moyles is delighted to be sharing this fairytale with him.

"We knew him from the sales and even before we’d done any of this he’d help you out any way you could," he says. "I’m more thrilled for him than I am for us; at this stage of his career to be having days like he had the last day is brilliant.

"He's great fun to be with in the car, or at the races - he absolutely lives to get dressed up and go racing. I don’t think he likes travelling outside of Ireland, but I can feel he’s going to be ready on the next trip!"

Moyles had actually already found one Group 1 winner for a meagre sum. One of his pinhooking projects was the subsequent Prince of Wales's Stakes winner My Dream Boat, who he bought as a foal for just €3,500.

"It just gives you a bit of confidence that if you’ve been long enough around the sales ring, you’re there from first lot to the last lot, it can be done," he says.

"You can go there and take on the the big boys with a cheap purchase. It does give you confidence that once you’ve done it once there’s no reason you can’t do it twice."

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