‘You have to give it a go sometime’ - family responsible for discovering multiple Cheltenham winners ready for new era at Goffs

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A family with a rich tradition of pinhooking success will appear in a new guise at this week’s Goffs Arkle Sale as Sarah Rohan raises the flag of Ballytrasna Farm with her father Richard.

The Rohans have been behind nine different Cheltenham Festival winners already, including discovering the likes of Stayers’ Hurdle heroes Flooring Porter and Paisley Park, and further back parting with small sums to secure future Gold Cup kings Looks Like Trouble and War Of Attrition.

Many of their great days have been in combination with long-time associate Fiona Magee, and another name joined the roll of honour this time around in the shape of Johnny’s Jury, a €70,000 foal sale purchase who changed hands for €150,000 at the Arkle Sale three years ago.

Ballytrasna has for a long time consigned through Ballincurrig House Stud, a farm with a close family link and just a few minutes away in County Cork, but, with Sarah Rohan having started to gain enough experience to step up for a front-of-house role, it was considered time to set sail.

“It’s very exciting to be under our own brand name and to be at the Arkle with this nice draft for the first time,” she said. 

“I suppose it was always at the back of our minds. My mum passed away 15 years ago and she set up Ballincurrig House Stud with my uncle, Michael Moore. 

"I went to the Irish National Stud last year to do the breeding course. I was there for six months and when I came home, I felt like it was the right time to make the move.

“I’m 23 and Dad always says there’s no time like the present, you have to give it a go sometime. Whether it’s the right time or not, you never know, but hopefully it is and with a bit of luck we can start off well.”

Ballytrasna has six in Part 1, followed by another quartet in Part 2. Its sextet for the main Tuesday and Wednesday sessions begins with the Len Walker-owned Walk In The Park filly out of black-type mare Hannah’s Princess (35). 

There is a Jukebox Jury gelding (93), an investment with Magee, who follows with a Blue Bresil gelding out of a sister to top hurdler Thyme Hill (248) and well-related sons of Walk In The Park (379) and Walzertakt (435).

Rohan and her father invested €10,000 in a Poet’s Word (355) from the smart family of No More Heroes and Celestial Gold, and there is hope that his sire is hitting the mark at the right time with his early crops of prospective jumpers. 

“It’s all about the sire, and having a good model with size, scope and a good step,” said Rohan. “The first six have arrived and there’s been good footfall since 9am on Sunday, when they first started showing.

“Goffs do a brilliant job getting buyers here; there’s always a great atmosphere and everyone is so helpful from the minute you get in the gates. We’ve been very lucky here in the past, and it’s a brilliant sale. 

"There’s a lot of hope around, we think, and if you have a nice horse who ticks the boxes, you should hopefully get well paid.”

Johnny's Jury won the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at CheltenhamCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

A long-respected operation seems to be in the safest of hands with Rohan, with her father never far away and the further assistance of Anthony Stamp and her boyfriend Adam Connolly, who has tasted his own fair share of Cheltenham glory as the work-rider and groom of dual Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs.

She also has the confidence in knowing what it takes to prepare a National Hunt success story from the moment when the gallant grey Johnny’s Jury stormed home for Gavin Sheehan and Jamie Snowden to take the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at odds of 20-1.

"He was probably the first horse I had a lot to do with,” she said. “Fiona buys them as foals and keeps them up at her farm, and then three months before a sale they come to us.

"The minute he came down to us, he was a superstar, just so simple to deal with and a brilliant attitude. He went to the Arkle and made €150,000 when Paul Holden bought him. He was a dream horse. It’s very hard to come across one like him.

“Dad and I were at Cheltenham on the Friday of the festival and we couldn’t believe it when we saw him coming up that hill. You get such a buzz. It’s very important that they go on and do it for the new people, too.”

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