The 'unmitigated disaster' who sired Found A Fifty from just four named foals in Ireland

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Here, Martin Stevens speaks to David Stack of Coolagown Stud about Found A Fifty's sire Solskjaer – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Breeding remains a funny old game. There are some National Hunt sires who cover hundreds upon hundreds of mares and still produce little of note, and then there is Solskjaer, who fathered four named foals in his two years in Ireland and managed to come up with top novice chaser Found A Fifty.

Solskjaer, a 2000-foaled son of Danehill bred and owned by Coolmore, was named after Manchester United forward Ole Gunnar in the expectation that he would become an elite athlete too, only for fate to intervene.

Aidan O’Brien reported that the horse tore all the ligaments off his hock as a two-year-old, which forced him to make his first appearance in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, only for him to suffer the same injury when running down the field in the Curragh Classic.

Solskjaer reappeared at four, when he won a Naas conditions race and the Royal Whip Stakes, and he was kept busy at five, when he scored in the Heritage Stakes and finished second in the Huxley Stakes, Amethyst Stakes and Solonaway Stakes. 

He might not have been a brilliant talent, but he was undeniably brave to have fought back from his horrific injuries, and he competed in an era in which sire sons of Danehill were the last word in fashion, and so was granted a chance at stud on the international scene.

He was booked for a breeding career in Australia, where sons of Danehill were in especially high demand, before being diverted to South Africa when Summerhill Stud struck a deal for him.

Solskjaer: "His fertility was bad – less than ten per cent if I remember rightly – and his temperament was even worse"

Solskjaer joined leading South African trainer Charles Laird at six, with the intention of running him in the country’s premier race, the Durban July, to showcase him to local breeders, but an interrupted preparation meant his best effort was a second in Listed company.

He stood at Summerhill Stud and later Heversham Park Stud from 2006 until the mid 2010s, during which time his year-younger half-brother Yeats established himself as one of the great stayers of all time by winning the Gold Cup in four consecutive years, and consequently became a keenly anticipated jumps sire.

Enter David Stack of Coolagown Stud in Fermoy, County Cork, with an idea that looked like a masterstroke on paper but turned out to be a mistake in practice.

“I’m always trying to think of a different angle, and so I bought Solskjaer on the strength of Yeats siring some exciting horses like Augusta Kate and Shattered Love in his early crops and becoming all the rage; I even forgave him his name, although I thought about changing it,” says the lifelong Liverpool fan.

“But it turned out to be terrible timing, as Yeats went through a total downturn that year. This was a long time before he became champion National Hunt sire. Suddenly nobody wanted his stores and his foals tanked in the autumn. He was already in quarantine by that point, so the deal had to go ahead.”

Solskjaer did little to make himself more welcome when he finally arrived at Coolagown Stud for the 2016 covering season.

David Stack: "He filled the eye. The trouble was if you took your eye off of him, he’d go for it"

“His fertility was bad – less than ten per cent if I remember rightly – and his temperament was even worse,” says Stack, who still harbours one very specific grudge against the horse.

“He attacked four guys in the yard, one of them being me. I wouldn’t mind, but I lost a smashing jacket when he pulled the arm off of it. You know when you get a nice, comfortable jacket that fits just right and it survives for years? I would’ve taken a bite mark over losing that.

“He was a good-looking horse, I’ll give him that. He filled the eye. The trouble was if you took your eye off of him, he’d go for it.”

Solskjaer stood at Coolagown Stud for two seasons before dropping dead of a heart attack in his third year there. 

His first Irish-conceived crop, now aged seven, comprises just three named foals: After The Drama, beaten an aggregate 464 lengths in five unplaced starts; Shelton Johnson, pulled up on his sole outing in a point-to-point; and, completely out of left field, the flourishing Found A Fifty.

Bred by well-known farrier Tom Fahey out of Clonmel point-to-point and dual handicap hurdle winner Fillmein, a daughter of Ardross’s unraced half-brother Gone Fishin, he bolted up on debut between the flags at Boulta at the end of his four-year-old season for the Fahey family, prompting his sale to be trained by Gordon Elliott for Bective Stud.

Found A Fifty: a top-class talent despite his sire Credit: CAROLINE NORRIS

Found A Fifty was a little way below the best novice hurdlers last year, but has found his metier over fences. He won the Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown in December and doubled his Grade 1 tally with a brave victory in the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree on Saturday – beating Master Chewy, a £300,000 son of luxury jumps sire Walk In The Park, in the process.

A model of consistency, he has also run second in the Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse, Irish Arkle at Leopardstown and Arkle at Cheltenham this term. What a joy he must be to own.

“Solskjaer was an unmitigated disaster,” reflects Stack with a wry smile. “For him to get a likeable, tough multiple Grade 1 winner like that, well, you couldn’t make it up. But it’s what makes this game so great. Everyone has a chance, at every level.

“I’m delighted for Tom Fahey, who’s a real genuine fella and a long-term supporter of the stud now. The only reason he used Solskjaer in the first place was because a friend of mine pestered him to send me a mare, and when he came down to look at the stallions, he was the one he liked.

“In fairness, it worked out well, and they picked a good name in Found A Fifty, as breeding a horse as good as him was totally unexpected. It was only when they started working him that it became apparent that he had talent, and then he showed it at Boulta for them. It's been a great story.”

Solskjaer’s only other named foal from his time standing at Coolagown Stud is the six-year-old mare Kath Alec Girl. She is unraced, but even if she never stepped foot on a racecourse, her maligned sire would still be able to boast a surely unbeatable strike-rate of 25 per cent Grade 1 winners to named foals conceived in Ireland. 

Storm The Stars: been going down a storm at studCredit: Amy Lynam

A nice talking point, but not much use to Stack now, of course.

Luckily, the Coolagown Stud roster contains more conventionally attractive prospects seven years after Solskjaer last stood there.

“Storm The Stars is getting a lot of mares this year; I don’t like quoting numbers but he’ll have a big book,” says Stack.

“That’s down to Willie Mullins sending out two good winners from two runners by him this season, Storm Heart and Milo Lises, and breeders seeing his first Irish foals arrive on farms. I’ve seen some stunning ones by him.

“Our new boy Kenway seems to have captured the imagination as a true dual-purpose sire, as he’s covered half-sisters to Catcher In The Rye, Garswood, Harry Angel, Master Carpenter and Mojo Star on the Flat side, and Dashel Drasher and Unexpected Party on the jumps side.

“Way To Paris is continuing to get plenty of nice mares too. There’s lots of good reports out there about his young stock.”

Better yet, Storm The Stars, Kenway and Way To Paris are kind-natured souls with full fertility. And for good measure they don’t destroy beloved garments and aren’t named after key players for Liverpool FC’s rivals in the Premier League. 

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