'She looks quick going past thistles' - Cork brothers turn €7,000 foal into breeze-up gold

Imagine what it must be like to bring a horse to the breeze-up sales for the first time; she's the first thoroughbred that you have ever purchased, you've cared for and nutured her at home and then watch as that filly sells for a six-figure sum. It's what pinhooking dreams are made of and for Cork brothers Andy and Johnny Shinnick that dream is a reality.

The duo were still attempting to come to terms with what they had just witnessed minutes earlier in the Tattersalls Ireland sales ring, where their Make Believe filly made €170,000 to Nick Bell and Middleham Park Racing.

"We don't have a gallop at home, we train her in the field and she looks quick going past thistles," said Johnny, as he and his brother Andy reflected on their stunning success, all the more remarkable for their lack of facilities and experience in the business. What the brothers did have, however, was belief in their filly.

Johnny said: "We didn't know how quick she was though. She is eager to go, she wants to go and she is very straightforward. We liked her homework but it's our first time doing this so we had no expectations."

The January-born filly topped the time sheets during Thursday morning's clocked gallop up the Fairyhouse home straight and purchasers' antennae were twitching once the speedometers had been checked and the results filed.

Andy, who runs the family dairy farm outside Fermoy, and Johnny, a conditional jockey, had been involved with showjumpers and hunters before they took the decision to expand into thoroughbreds and purchased the daughter of Ballylinch Stud's Make Believe for just €7,000 as a foal. Out of Suraat, a half-sister to Listed Bosra Sham Fillies' Stakes winner Terror, the filly is from the further family of Indian Rocket, successful in the Mill Reef Stakes and later the broodmare sire of Goken, Sands Of Mali and Maarek.

Initially the brothers had intended on offering the filly for resale as a yearling but, as the year passed by, decided they would wait and aim her for Friday's sale.

"We said no, that we would go for this," explained Johnny. "We were happy with the way she was going and because she was the only yearling we had, there was no panic with her so we tipped away with her, breaking her in and preparing her for the sale."

The Shinnick farm is located near Grove Stud and Johnny rides out there, in addition to his other commitments for various trainers, so Brendan Holland gave them access to the facilities to apply the finishing touches to the filly's education.

Johnny added: "The facilities at Grove Stud are top class and Brendan Holland very kindly let us use the gallops there. Every day she worked she was getting faster and better and the more training we did with her, the more forward she went."

When she burned up the two furlongs on Thursday, their quiet belief in the filly and what she had done at home was reinforced.

"We were pleased with the breeze and to see her going so well proves that we were thinking the right thing," Andy remarked.

In between the breeze and the sale, Johnny had to dash to Limerick to ride O Mio Babbino for Patrick Cronin in a handicap chase on Thursday evening, in which they finished fifth.

Plenty of others agreed with their assessment of their juvenile filly, who will be trained by Ed Dunlop, and she could just be the start for the talented brothers, who will reinvest some of their profits in a couple of yearlings during the autumn.

"We will buy more than one this time but we will be sensible and won't go wild," said Johnny.

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