‘This stems from one man and that’s Mr Magnier’ – Coolmore reveal grand plan to secure the Walk In The Park sireline

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Coolmore have revealed an ambitious plan to unearth a stallion son of their champion National Hunt sire Walk In The Park.

The burgeoning initiative took a significant step forward on Saturday when The Mighty Celt ran out an impressive winner of the Prix Rush at Auteuil. The three-year-old faced some well-credentialed opposition, including the Willie Mullins-trained Dead Cert, but looked a cut above his 13 rivals as he registered a tidy four-length debut success.

Carrying the colours of Sue Magnier, the Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm-trained colt was always travelling smoothly and another fluent leap at the last sealed the deal before he put daylight between himself and the field. Connections said such a performance was far from unexpected.

"We came over with great expectations," says Coolmore’s Gerry Aherne. "But then when you get here you hear this horse is supposed to win, then that horse is supposed to win, and then Willie Mullins is here, so maybe our confidence wavered in the ten minutes before the race. But that’s what we’d expected to see because Noel and Amanda have spoken very highly of this horse from very early doors.

"James Reveley said he was greener going to the start than he was in the race. He didn’t need to ask him for sixth gear, he winged the last and galloped up to the line and he said that there should be plenty left to come. The sky's the limit at the moment."

The Mighty Celt, who was bred by Martin O'Sullivan out of a sister to Felix Desjy, is among a select group of three-year-olds who are being campaigned by George and Zetterholm with a potential stallion career in mind.

The Mighty Celt and connections including Gerry Aherne (right of jockey James Reveley) after his debut successCredit: Scott Burton

The youngster is the second of the bunch to make a striking winning debut after Wild Bill Hickok opened his account at Compiegne earlier in the month. Aherne says the pair’s long-term target is the Grade 1 Prix Cambaceres in early November, a race that has been won in the past by the likes of Haras du Hoguenet resident Jigme, Lulamba’s sire Nirvana Du Berlais and Long Run.

Coolmore have gone to great lengths to secure some of the most potent sirelines in global bloodstock – think Sadler’s Wells and, more recently, Scat Daddy – and Aherne expanded on how the operation came to focus on finding a proven son of Walk In The Park to stand at stud.

"This stems from one man and that’s the boss, Mr Magnier," he says. "Walk In The Park is very close to his heart and we all know how good he is. Because all his progeny are winning in places like Cheltenham, he said, ‘How are we going to find a son of his to try and keep this bloodline going?’

"The ultimate aim would be to find a son of Walk In The Park to bring back to Grange Stud and continue the lineage. That’s what we’d love to do because he’s an incredible stallion. So Mr Magnier started this off and himself and David Wachman were engaging with me about it. We went to the sales and bought a few that first year and then put them in with some great lads in Ireland."

The project has seen Aherne embark on a mission to secure the best youngstock by Walk In The Park available. The Racing Post sales database lists the Coolmore man as having signed for 18 foals or short yearlings by the sire since 2022, with that initial crop containing six colts and two fillies.

The likes of The Mighty Celt and Wild Bill Hickok highlight the cosmopolitan nature of the modern day National Hunt market. Both are out of French-bred dams and have gone into training in France, but are by an Irish-based sire, bear the IRE suffix and also benefitted from an expert early education in Ireland.

"Damian Murphy in Cork took some, and Ciaran Murphy, who’s up in Dot Love’s place in Westmeath, took a few,” continues Aherne. “It’s amazing how good these guys are at their jobs. Damian Murphy said to me in the middle of last summer, if I let him run The Mighty Celt in the Dewhurst then he’d beat Aidan’s! Obviously that was said in jest, but he was able to tell me this is a very good horse when he was only a two-year-old."

While The Mighty Celt, a €56,000 purchase, and Wild Bill Hickok, an €82,000 buy, are out of French-bred mares, other members of the cohort are Irish through and through. The next cab off the rank is likely to be Jolly Swagman, an €88,000 signing out of the Supreme Leader mare Follow My Leader, while Aherne describes the colt out of Cheltenham Festival winner Shattered Love as potentially “the real cream of the crop.” The latter was the most expensive foal at the 2022 Goffs December National Hunt Sale at €155,000.

"We have another one that’s about ready to run, he’s just been recently named Jolly Swagman, and we think he’s pretty good as well," he says. "If he keeps going the right way we’ll try to find him a maiden in the next three weeks.

"The most expensive of the bunch is the foal I bought out of Shattered Love, he could just be the real cream of the crop if things work out. He’ll probably be one for the autumn as he’s a bigger type of horse, but he does everything with a level of ease that they haven’t seen in recent times. He has a summer ahead of him and we won’t rush him, but I was in Noel and Amanda’s this morning and he looks fantastic."

Aherne also expanded on the relationship between the Coolmore team and the George-Zetterholm training partnership.

"I met them at the sales through Brendan Bashford shortly after Il Est Francais won at Kempton the previous year,” he says. “I told them this is what we were thinking about and they were good enough to come and look at the horses. They’re great people and I’m delighted for them too. It was a big pressure on them and it was only when I met Noel [at the races] that I realised the kind of pressure he felt. It’s John Magnier’s first National Hunt horses in France, and they’re potentially making stallions, so the eyes of the world are on him."

French breds have come to exert a significant influence over jumps racing in Britain and Ireland, including when winning 13 of the 28 races at last week’s Cheltenham Festival. This haul featured five Grade 1 triumphs by headline names Fact To File, Jango Baie, Jasmin De Vaux, Kopek Des Bordes and Lossiemouth.

By mirroring the earlier education that French-bred jumpers receive, Aherne says the Walk In The Park experiment is providing further proof that grounding, rather than genetics, is the most significant factor at play.

"I’ve always been a big believer in the French system, and you can’t doubt the results they’re having," he says. "But this goes some way to proving it’s more about nurture rather than nature. We’ve done a lot of work with them as young horses; they were broken as backend yearlings, they went to Damian and Ciaran for a stint through the autumn of their yearling year and into the spring at two. Then we let them off for the summer and brought them back to the two lads before we moved four or five of them to Noel and Amanda in September time.

"In Ireland the old system was to breed your animal, throw him out in the field for four years and then pull him in and expect him to be a racehorse. It’s like trying to train a 20-year-old to start playing professional soccer. But these horses have been in the gym from yearlings to their early two-year-old year. These aren’t horses that were broken six weeks ago, they’ve got a lot of work in already. That’s what the French have been doing for 50 years."

Aherne says The Mighty Celt’s demeanour at Auteuil is further proof positive of the advantages of an early education. He also says it is not just in France that Coolmore will look to employ this approach. 

The Mighty Celt on the day he was sold as a foal at Goffs with figures in his back story Eileen Furlong (Thistletown Stud), Peter Mulvany (Haras Dormul) and Martina Doran (Ballyfrory Stud)Credit: Peter Mulvany

HRI’s introduction of three-year-old National Hunt Academy Hurdles races has not been met with universal approval, but can count Coolmore among the owners aiming to get behind the initiative.

"You’d want to see The Mighty Celt walking around the ring at Auteuil as you’d never believe he was a colt,” he says. “But because he’s been handled every day of his life, it’s just second nature to him. We have a couple of fillies on the same programme and we’ll leave them in Ireland and start with the autumn programme when that comes out. We want to try and support that when it gets up and running."

He adds: "Look, we haven’t reinvented the wheel, but it might be something that’ll get people thinking about starting these horses as yearlings. And you don’t even have to do a lot with them, just turn them into athletes rather than having them get soft and fat out in the field, because then it can take forever. Owners will be happier because they’ll find out what they have sooner, trainers will be happier, breeders will be too because their mare’s pedigree will either be proven or fail – and once we know, we know, rather than waiting for a six- or seven-year-old to do something."

The Magnier name has been renowned in National Hunt breeding circles long before the likes of Galileo, Justify and Wootton Bassett came along.

The family stood influential jumps stallions such as Cottage, sire of three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Cottage Rake; Fortina, a winner of jumping’s blue riband event who went on to sire two winners of the race in Fort Leney and Glencaraig Lady; and 14-time champion sire Deep Run.

While Magnier’s extensive bloodstock portfolio now contains numerous stallions of genuine global significance, he has, Aherne says, relished returning to his roots.

"To be fair to Mr Magnier, he never rests on his laurels," says Aherne. 'He never says ‘that’s the system, that’s what we do’. He says there’s always something we can do better. For a man that’s engaged in so much business and so many stud farms and horses around the world, it’s incredible how engaged he is in this project.

"It’s coming from his home farm, and he’s National Hunt at heart. I just spoke to him a few minutes ago and even though he’s away at the moment, he’s really getting a kick out of it. He wants us to do it right and make sure every horse gets the best chance, and just hopes that we can find one. This has started off fantastically well. I’m very proud that he asked me to be a part of it and I’m delighted they’re getting the results. Let’s hope we can continue on."

Inothewayurthinkin was a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner for Walk In The ParkCredit: Patrick McCann

Walk In The Park is the latest in a long line of champion National Hunt sires to stand under the Coolmore banner. Since the days of Deep Run, the list has been added to by Yeats, Milan, Flemensfirth and Supreme Leader, as well as Be My Native.

He claimed a maiden leading sire crown last season and is already over £1.5 million clear in the current championship, helped in no small part by Inothewayurthinkin landing this year’s renewal of the Cheltenham Gold Cup for JP and Noreen McManus. With sizeable well-bred crops still in the pipeline, Aherne predicts the son of Montjeu will dominate for years to come.

"I’ve been in the game a while and I’ve seen Flemensfirth and Oscar and those good stallions, but I’m not sure I’ve seen one like this guy now," he says. "Looking through his stats, I can see him being champion jumps sire for the next ten years, because I don’t see anyone who’s going to get near him.

"He still has a full crop of foals to be born this year and he’s still covering mares again. The dam of The Mighty Celt was actually scanned in foal [on Saturday] so he’s flying along. They’re going to be born in 2026, so that’s going to give him progeny running up to 2036. Who’s going to beat him? I can’t think of anyone, unless one of his sons comes along and does it one day."

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Pedigree pick

Victoria Harbour looks a noteworthy newcomer for Karl Burke in the Best Odds Guaranteed At BetMGM Fillies' Novice Stakes at Wolverhampton at 4.55pm. 

The Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum homebred is by Frankel and out of Dubai Queen, who has bred five winners at paddocks and finished runner-up in the Sandringham Handicap at Royal Ascot during her time on the track.

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As if all that wasn’t encouragement enough, Dubai Queen is out of Zomaradah, making the dam a half-sister to none other than Dubawi.

Despite her regal lineage, Victoria Harbour is no certainty to have things all her own way as her opposition includes Joy Of Dubai, a Pinatubo half-sister to the Grade 1-winning and $6 million McKulick who finished a promising third on debut. Warm Glow may not have achieved as much in her two starts to date but she is similarly well bred, being an Oasis Dream half-sister to Masked Marvel and Waldlerche, dam of Arc hero Waldgeist. 

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