The Sunday Syndicates Post – Vol. 2, Issue 24

A short but royally good time was had by us all with Queen Maedbh. Cast your mind back to March 2019, yes back to “the COVID”, when a series called ‘The Art Of The Mating’ was launched by Jack in an attempt to aide everyones lockdown woes. An educational series featuring a panel discussion with industry professionals and experts hosted every Sunday night.

From here the Bargain Breezer project was born. An attempt to attend the breeze-up season that year with a data driven approach to source quality performers for €25k or less. A fresh syndicate of 400 people was born and three horses were sourced with a view to trade on in the event they went on to perform on the track. We proved that it could in fact be achieved.

Whilst things didn’t go exactly to plan with Yourplaceermine and Shoot The Breeze our patience was rewarded with Cliffsofthunder. A Night Of Thunder filly for 20,000gns was exactly the bargain we were looking for. She didn’t make the track as a 2yo but debuted in April of her 3yo career for the Harty team where she ran on to be an eye catching 4th sending bloodstock agents into a frenzy. Cliffs was duly sold to America for a sizeable profit after just the one racetrack appearance proving that the Bargain Breezer project could in fact be achieved.

Fast forward two years, no more lockdown, no more COVID woes but still an aspiring Bargain Breezer project. Back at the Tattersalls Guineas breeze-up sale a dashing chestnut filly went relatively under the radar after clocking inside the top 50 times. She was by Gleneagles, a sire who we thought was seriously undervalued in the sales ring and from a good miling family, so our interests were suitably peaked when she clocked so well over 2f. 25,000gns later we had our Bargain Breezer of 2022 and she was en route to the masterful Gavin Cromwell.

After a series of impressive home workouts and a racecourse gallop a route to the racetrack was plotted by Gavins racing manager, Alan Hannigan, via the ITM Barrier Trails on July 5th. Our new Queen displayed with serious authority the ability she possessed with a devastating performance under Gary Carroll. That in itself was enough to attract a lot of interest from all across the globe but onwards we marched to a racecourse debut.

Ten days later Queen Maedbh made her racecourse debut and whilst things did not go exactly to plan she ran a highly promising race and marked herself out as a smart filly for the future. Again, the phones rang and the global interest was peaked. In the end it was our Leopardstown conquerer, Joseph O’Brien, who landed the winning bid and we couldn’t be happier to see her continue her career in Ireland on the historic Hill with one of the very best in the business. She has entries in the Group 2 Debutante and Group 1 Moyglare so we’re all very much looking forward to watching her progress.

Syndicate members who followed the Bargain Breezer project and backed our judgement to land the big payday were rewarded and those dark days of lockdown were illuminated by a filly we hold very close to our hearts. A special mention must go to Gavin Cromwell and his team at home who handled the filly with such professionalism. Alan Hannigan was vital in helping us source the filly and plotted her map to the track with serious precision. Last but not least to jockey Gary Carroll who from day one knew how talented Queen Maedbh was. His feedback throughout was nothing short of exceptional. We’re now very excited to see what Team Cromwell can achieve with our new Masked Marvel filly.

50 strong squad off to Naas

Naas racecourse has built up such a strong reputation over the years that it has now become one of the premier tracks in the country. Dermot Cantillon and the Naas team kindly extended the invite to Syndicates.Racing members to attend the Ballyhane Stakes Day free of charge this Monday. We had our biggest ever response to an event where a battalion of 50 syndicate members will descend on Naas for a great days racing.

Back with a bang

There are very few race meetings like the Galway Festival. It is truly unique with a mixture of flat and jumps racing for 7 days right bang smack in the middle of the season. The last two years has meant Galway has been hit harder than most but safe to say it was well and truly back with a bang.

Samantha Maguire was our sole runner of the week on Friday and by word had she got us excited turning for home. A very messy race saw her finish 7th but she was hindered at a crucial point in the race just as her run was beginning to come to fruition. The run did not go unnoticed as Racing TV presenter Jane Mangan highlighted her as a filly that “will be winning races” whilst Timeform noted “shaped better than the distance beaten suggests and is one to keep an eye on when qualified for handicaps; mid-field, travelled smoothly, headway when denied a run approaching final 1f, forced to switch soon after, not quicken.” We were delighted to have 20 owners on course to cheer her on and look forward to our next outing with the Kildare GAA filly.

The variety of connections making it to the winner enclosure was heartening to see. Patrick Mullins finally claimed the GPT on his 16th attempt on Monday, Brain Duffy provided a story for the ages with Magic Chegaga, the Shark did it again with another basement purchase landing one of the biggest pots of the year when Hewick landed the Galway Plate, Tony Martin created further history in the Galway Plate with Tudor City who became the oldest winner of the race since 1947 and our new man Peter Fahey bagged four winners for the week

Yearling sales just around the corner

The catalogues have started to appear for the 2022 yearling sales and we’re suitably excited. We’ve already begun to scale through the pages in search of our next Mise le Meas, Golden Mayflower or Queen Maedbh. We’ve begun formulating a couple of different strategies for unique new ideas. One of those could be to bring a Bargain Breezer type syndicate to the yearling sales and formulate a commercial syndicate focussed at achieving maximum return for members by getting horses to place or win maidens with the view to trade on.

Jumps Girls proving popular

It’s never easy launching three horses on the one day but my word has the response been good. A big thing we’ve noticed is people taking larger chunks in our new national hunt fillies. 5,10,20% chunks have been secured which we’re delighted about as this is a highly exciting group of horses.

Our Milan filly departed for Micháel Conaghan’s last weekend, the Brickley brothers of Ard Erin Stud are breaking in our Walk In The Park and Masked Marvel fillies whilst Sonny has taken charge of Ellen Kelly. Our new package deals have also been very popular and provide a good opportunity for you to get involved with a broad range of horses and trainers for a discounted price. The Jumps Girls All-In Special has been our most popular package deal that we have ever launched.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoyed this weeks Issue. If there is anything that we can do for you please let us know john@syndicates.racing.