A couple who are now reaping the rewards after weathering tough times

There is no air of self-satisfaction when Brendan Gallagher assesses the strength of his 28-strong draft heading to the Keeneland September Breeding Stock Sale.

The Irishman and his wife Olive might well be sitting handy now, but a decade ago, while attempting to manage their bloodstock business on one side of the Atlantic and the newly-acquired Frankfort Park Farm in Kentucky on the other, they were in nothing like such a prominent position.

"We came out here ten years ago and when we originally got involved, we were quarantining a lot of horses to go to Europe," he recalls.

"We bought a lot of horses in America just before the big dip, the crash. We were kind of committed here then, the bottom fell out of the market, and we did what we could to survive."

There is a plethora of experience between the Gallaghers. Brendan worked for Gainesway Farm as a student in the early 80s and assisted at Coolmore’s Kilsheelan Stud.

Olive, meanwhile is from Irish racing royalty as a daughter of Arkle’s jockey Pat Taaffe. Together they founded Emerald Bloodstock Services and were involved in trading, transporting and insuring horses across the planet.

Initially, Frankfort was being managed remotely, but they were forced into a permanent move to America to keep themselves afloat, selling Emerald in 2009.

"If we hadn’t come out here [to Kentucky] at that time we would have lost everything here, I would imagine," Brendan Gallagher says.

"It was difficult to run it from Ireland, that was the problem. It was a big transition because it’s different breeding horses here to Europe. There are similarities, but a lot of differences, too. There’s the land, and here the horses tend to be a bit more forward, I always say you can wreck horses here easier because the place is so rich, you have to take it a bit easier.

"The first years were very difficult. The market, to all intents and purposes, was a fraction of what it had been when we bought all the stock, and then you had a different way of racing the horses. It’s taken us a good while to get to grips with it, but thank god the last couple of years have been great."

Frankfort Farm predominantly breeds and sells for itself and it has made a distinct impression lately through several of its alumni. One, Everfast, finished second to War Of Will in this year’s Preakness while the other, Monomoy Girl, should need little introduction after a stream of major wins for trainer Brad Cox in 2018 including the Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Bred in partnership with Gainesway’s sales director Michael Hernon, they offered a Shackleford half-brother at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky 2019 October Yearling Sale.

"I always say with her, she was a tricky lady when she was younger but she worked out great for us. She was temperamental but sometimes those very good fillies are. She definitely had that about her," Gallagher recalls.

Monomoy Girl (second right) claimed a notable triumph in the Breeders' Cup DistaffCredit: Edward Whitaker

They retain a strong link with Ireland, where there is still a breeding involvement, but a handful of individual graded winners in the last couple of years has been one worthwhile reason to stick with Stateside life.

Brendan Gallagher has also been discovering other positive aspects of relocation, aside from just the scenic Bluegrass country.

"With Emerald, we used to spend three or four weeks here anyway, so it wasn’t as if the place was completely foreign to us," he says.

"It’s a bigger pool over here and I think the whole thing is getting a little bit more global. Americans are more into turf horses now than they ever were, and there’s the prize-money.

"You can sit down on a Saturday there from one’ o clock til eight or nine at night and watch graded stakes races on the east and west coast - it’s exciting.

"Then within 15 miles we’ve got all the big farms in Kentucky, we’re three miles from Keeneland and seven or eight from Fasig-Tipton.

"The travel and the logistics of that, it’s much easier to manage here. When we were based in Ireland, you’re spending half your time on ferries and planes. Having been in Emerald Bloodstock for as long as we were, we’d spent 15 or 16 years going to every sale in Europe, then we ended up in a spot where you didn’t have all that moving around."

Although those initial hard times would appear to be becoming but a memory, Gallagher is swift to dispel any suggestions of complacency.

To be honest, you’re never really on top of it, we’ll never know it all," he affirms.

"I believe nature wants to give you its best and we do a good job of trying to mess it up from time to time. The horses, if you stick as close as you can to nature and do all the little things as good as you can, that’s how we’re still going, I reckon."

THE FOAL SPECIALISTS

Frankfort is a significant player with its younger stock and will be offering 19 weanlings along with nine broodmares at Keeneland.

"We’ve concentrated on the foals; if you have the mare back on the farm if anything happens then, it gives you that extra benefit," Brendan Gallagher explains.

"If you get a name for selling foals, more people are inclined to buy them off you and we sell our best foals, we don’t hold them back to sell as yearlings, we sell everything. I suppose it gives people that extra bit of confidence when they buy your horses."

Gallagher picks out a handful of his draft, settling first on an American Pharoah (hip 399) out of the Distorted Humor mare Sea Of Snow.

A son of American Pharoah is among the pick of the Frankfort draftCredit: Michele MacDonald

"He’s a first foal out of a mare who was bought back in Newmarket, she won two at two and was third in the Woodcote Stakes down the hill at Epsom on Derby Day. That’s a really fast race and he looks an out-and-out two-year-old, a very strong, fast horse. He’s a beauty."

Gallagher adds of a well-regarded Dialed In filly out of Belle Chaussee (518): "She’s a half-sister to Belle Laura, who was Grade 2 placed, so she’s had big updates. Belle Chaussee is a nice young Giant’s Causeway mare, she’s in foal to Empire Maker this year. She’s exceptional, a really athletic sort of foal."

He continues: "We bred four mares to Dialed In. His progeny averaged over $80,000 this year and they like him in Europe as well. For a horse who stands at $25,000, it’s impressive, and he’ll have his best runners coming on next year.

"There’s a Bernardini mare, Lady Hester (278), we’re also selling in Book 2 who has had a big update, her half-sister was third in a Grade 2 the other day and Bernardini as a broodmare sire is flying now.

"We’ve two nice Hard Spuns as well. Those in Book 2 would be the best ones we’d be selling in Keeneland, then there are other nice ones down through the books. We put a lot of effort into trying to produce those foals."

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