The Sunday Syndicates Post – Vol. 3, Issue 8

There was an age span of 85 years amongst our owners on Thursday in Thurles to cheer West End Victory and Jody back into the winners enclosure. The youngest member of the raucous contingent was 5 whilst the oldest will turn 90 next week. It was certainly a day to remember and was hopefully only the start of a very exciting journey. West End Victory maintained our 100% strike record in Irish bumpers first time out, something that we are very proud of.

Our journey began in June 2021 when we embarked upon the famed Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale in search of our next superstar filly. In 2020 we had managed to source the now two time winning Nós na Gaoithe from the exact same sale for €30,000. She would go onto win her bumper on debut in Sligo on August 5th 2021.

Our soon to be Westerner 3yo ticked a lot of boxes for us. Firstly she has a stellar pedigree being a sister to two high class blacktype winners. She is by a sire who we absolutely love and one we think the market consistently under appreciates. She is out of the creme de la creme of national hunt broodmare sires, Old Vic. We were hoping she would slip through the cracks based on her physical, lacking the size for the point to point men which is exactly what happened. She always had a lovely athletic walk which is something that we always try to look for. We knew she had to grow and strengthen but she had the core qualities there for us to take her home with us and boy are we happy we did now.

She absolutely blossomed during her time with Sonny Carey who is such a vital part of all of our success with all of these talented fillies. She did exactly what we hoped she’d do and just thrived throughout the breaking process. She stole the show in Tinnakill in 2021 and was sold out soon after the breakfast.

“Patience is a virtue” as the old saying goes and fair play to this ladies owners as they had it in spades but I’d put any money on that not one single one of her 68 owners regret buying a share in West End Victory after Thursdays heroics. There should be any amount of improvement in this tough filly as the Listed Mares Bumper at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival and the Grade 3 Mares Bumper at the Punchestown Festival now beckon. One thing is for certain, if yesterday is anything to go by, the roof will firmly be blown off the stands were she to score at either of those festivals.

Next Gen

Both Fast Tara and Freedom Falls featured in video updates this week. Freedom Falls was once again under my tutelage at the impeccable Hamwood Stud grass gallop on Saturday. She is coming to hand nicely and is one to look forward to this season.

Fast Tara would take your eye out and looks to have exploded from 2 to 3. She put two nice performances on the board last year but may be a force to be reckoned with in 2023 for Johnny Murtagh.

Our Milan filly has begun to really thrive with Sonny and she is set to depart to Peter Fahey in the coming days. Being a half sister to the multiple Grade 1 winning Road To Respect we’re hoping that she can follow in the footsteps of the likes of West End Victory.

Given Westerner is the sire of the moment we doubled down on him this year after purchasing Ellen Kelly in Tattersalls. She is absolutely flying it with Sonny and we’ll look to get her to Willies after the Cheltenham Festival.

Foal watch

Alex Cairns paid a visit to Tinnakill during the week to capture some of the new life this spring. The Fifty Stars foals are really impressing with our breeding syndicates foal out of Lady Breffni a real standout. Far Above has his 3rd crop on the ground and they continue to impress whilst there was another belting Starspangledbanner colt born who has big footsteps to follow after State Of Rest’s heroics this year.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading. If there is anything we can do for you please get in touch with john@syndicates.racing.