Irish breeding success celebrated long into the night – and next morning

They say that the real reason for Leopardstown's three stand-alone meetings in late January and February being combined and repackaged as the Dublin Racing Festival was so that owners, breeders and agents could enjoy their night at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association national awards without having to worry about how to get to Dublin with a sore head the next day.

With Leopardstown rescheduled to the first weekend of February and the awards taking place the Saturday before, attendees now need only make the half-hour drive to Naas to go racing in the morning. Although those who manage to do even that are talked of as heroes in hushed tones as later risers slowly emerge from their rooms into the lobby of the awards venue, the Heritage Hotel in Killenard.

Industry members have every right to enjoy celebrating the success of the Irish thoroughbred sector, one so important to the country's wider economy – a point that ITBA chairman Christy Grassick noted in his opening address should be reminded to potential TDs as a general election looms.

As ever, the high points of the ceremony were the special awards given to some of the biggest contributors to the success and profitability of Irish bloodstock, led by JP McManus's induction into the ITBA hall of fame.

There are numerous figures that illustrate McManus's achievements – 17 champion owner titles in Ireland, ten in Britain, a runaway record 59 Cheltenham Festival winners and so on – but the statistic that really exemplifies his importance to the sport is the fact 47 different Irish trainers saddled a runner who carried his famous green and gold hooped silks last season.

McManus may own Jackdaws Castle, from where Jonjo O'Neill operates, and engage most of the leading trainers, but if he buys a promising runner from even the smallest of stables he usually insists on leaving them there.

Kieran McManus and Sue Ann Foley collect father JP McManus's trophy from ITBA chairman Christy Grassick and Kildare South TD Martin HeydonCredit: Caroline Norris

John Magnier remembered on video how he had once encouraged his friend and business associate to rationalise numbers and offload some of his poorer performers but McManus replied that he simply couldn't as he knew how much the horses meant to the people who cared for them. This, Magnier noted, made McManus unique among the most prominent owners in racing.

McManus was not on hand to collect his award, so his children Kieran – who spoke warmly about how his father enjoys recounting tales of some of his early horses and gambling plots – and Sue Ann Foley deputised.

Philip Myerscough was earlier honoured with the lifetime achievement award, and listening to his accomplishments in the industry hammered home just how multi-skilled he is, ticking the boxes of breeder, owner, stallion master, sales house MD, auctioneer, committee servant and more over the years.

Not that Myerscough was prepared to sing his own praises in his acceptance speech, sharing the responsibility for his success with wife Jane and reflecting on how the wheel of fortune turns in everyone's favour eventually.

Indeed, he told a fascinating story of the twists of fate that led to two of his greatest achievements in breeding. Having long been enamoured with Aga Khan Studs breeding, he bought the Shirley Heights mare Adariysa despite her being in foal to a little known sire in Un Desperado.

Unsure what to do with the resultant colt foal he sent him to Edward O'Grady and ended up with a homebred Cheltenham Festival winner in his colours as Ventana Canyon coasted to a 20-length victory in the 1996 Arkle.

By now very much aware of the powers of Un Desperado, he bought the Miller's Mate mare Katday on the basis she was in foal to him. Not long after, one of her earlier foals by the sire – Best Mate – emerged as a brilliant chaser and the useful Cornish Rebel, Inca Trail and Inexorable followed.

Katday's daughter China Sky is the dam of the horse flying the flag for the Myerscough family's breeding exploits on the track at present, the dual Grade 1-winning novice hurdler and exciting chaser Champ – another owned by McManus, incidentally.

Philip Myerscough collects his trophy from award sponsor and son-in-law John BarrettCredit: Caroline Norris

Another leading figure with solid dual-purpose credentials, bloodstock agent Mags O'Toole, received the most heartfelt reception of the evening as she went to the stage to pick up the Wild Geese award for Irish horsepeople who have represented their home country on the world stage with distinction.

The audience were no doubt determined to show O'Toole how much she was appreciated when her talent for scouting future stars is in inverse proportion to her love of the limelight, and with the death of her father Mick, a legend of Irish racing, still fresh in the memory.

O'Toole remembered fondly how her father had been the guiding light in her career, if a little hard to please at times. “I rang him in the Aintree car park after Tiger Roll won his first National and he immediately said: 'that Willie Mullins horse was unlucky, he'd have got up with an extra stride',” she recalled with a smile.

The audience were reminded of a long list of celebrities under both codes signed for by O'Toole, and in the bar after the ceremony one of the main beneficiaries of the agent's acumen, Noel Meade, reminded me of two others: Sausalito Bay, who took the scalp of Best Mate in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, and Jazz Messenger, bought for just 15,000gns and a Grade 1 winner at Kempton and Punchestown.

The most hotly contested unofficial award of the evening (and following morning) is the last to leave the bar and, although some of the official award winners ran big races, it was – I was reliably told by a witness – an industry up-and-comer in pinhooker and auctioneer Jerry Horan who outstayed his elders by retiring at 7.30am.

Although quite how my informant, Ballyhane Stud supremo Joe Foley, can be sure about that without having been the last to bed himself escapes me.

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