'It gives us great pleasure' - meet the keen young couple behind Ashbrooke Stud

Nobody could accuse Alice O’Brien and Bradley Wood of resting on their laurels, given their purchase of Ashbrooke Stud and preparations for their first yearling consignments.

Having bought the County Durham stud in March last year - during the first coronavirus lockdown - it is a case of onwards and upwards for the couple, who have both learned their trade in working for established breeding and racing operations over the last few years.

O'Brien explains: "I was into showjumping and showing and then went to Nottingham to study geography. I worked part-time for Alan McCabe during university, where I was lucky enough to learn from some fantastic horse people, including Ivan Furtado.

"Bradley got into racing at a young age and became a work-rider for Howard Johnson in the hope of becoming a jump jockey. Reaching six foot two, that hope was squashed, and after riding work for a string of other trainers he turned his attention to the bloodstock industry.

"We ended up together when I returned from university six years ago and then rented a big farm in Northumberland. We built our own stables there and Bradley then thought we should work for ourselves."

O'Brien and Wood turned their hands to pinhooking and their first purchase, a War Command filly out of the Nightshift mare Deora De, repaid their faith when selling to Richard Hannon and Julie Wood for 14,000gns at Tattersalls Book 3 in 2017.

"Warsash cost €10,000 at the Goffs November Foal Sale and we resold her at Book 3 for 14,000gns to Julie Wood and Richard Hannon," says O'Brien.

"She started in a race won by Qabala and was then fourth in a hot novice at Newbury before suffering an injury. We follow every horse we sell and seeing them race gives us enormous pleasure.

She says: "We’ve sold our yearlings through Paul and Sara Thorman’s Trickledown Stud from the start. We’ve been lucky enough to prep yearlings for them and they’ve been so supportive in passing on clients to us. They've been huge influences."

Paul Thorman was also the one who encouraged the couple to take the plunge into pinhooking and selling full-time.

Wood explains: "Paul sat us down at Tattersalls one day and said, ‘You're at the point now where it’s no good coming here with two or three yearlings each year. You need to put yourself in the industry or take yourself out of it.'

"After that we decided pretty quickly that because we love the game so much we’d give it a good go!

Alice O'Brien and Bradley Wood attend to their youngstockCredit: Ashbrooke Stud

"We'd enough savings from selling horses that we could afford to put a deposit down on the farm in late 2019, and we got the keys in March last year. We’ve spent the last 12 months fitting new internal stables, installing a walker and building a lunge pit."

It was a bold move to buy and invest in a new business during a period of uncertainty, but the pair are already looking to the future, with the yearling sales first on the agenda.

O'Brien says: "We're planning to have our first draft at the Somerville Sale in Newmarket. Upping the yearling numbers is high on our priorities as the yearling sales give us great pleasure.

"We're also very lucky to have fantastic clients based in Newmarket, Ireland, Spain and Kuwait."

Among the weanlings who will be offered this year are a colt and filly by Havana Grey, and a Camacho half-brother to a 110,000gns Caravaggio yearling who is now in training with Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle.

"It's about buying more foals to sell as yearlings and buying more mares to breed from," says O'Brien. "And quality as well - we don't just want to go low-key; in the past we've gone low key because we've had to, we were saving for a farm.

"We haven't inherited any of this money, we've had to buy this out of hard cash earnings, which has been tough as a young couple."

Longer-term goals for the operation include selling foals and breeze-up horses, as Wood explains, saying: "It would be great if we could consign our first draft of foals the following year, and we'd love to dabble in the breeze-up market in the coming years.

"We've got three mares in for our clients and another three of our own, including Penpal, who'll visit Sergei Prokofiev. She’s by Invincible Spirit and is out of a mare called French Friend. She was a winning juvenile for James Fanshawe and comes from a very good Kilcarn Stud family - her half-sister [French Fusion] was a good two-year-old for Jim Bolger and holds an entry in the Irish Oaks."

He adds: "We've got four weanlings in and will probably buy one at the March Sale. We'll probably end up with ten to 12 yearlings to prep - again, that's something we'd like to grow as we really enjoy prepping and preparing yearlings."

O'Brien and Wood have also had plenty of success with cheaply purchased horses, having sold subsequent winner Secret Eagle, who was picked up for just 800gns at the Tattersalls February Sale in 2019.

O'Brien says: "We sold Secret Eagle to Michael Dods. He had two runs as a two-year-old and won nicely on his second start. We also had the Fountain Of Youth half-brother to Summer Sands in our care, who was sold privately from the farm."

Ashbrooke Stud will also offer other services including spelling horses in training, foaling clients' mares and grazing yearlings ahead of them being broken.

O'Brien adds: "We've clients' mares to foal this week, horses in who have been injured on the track, and yearlings from Newmarket trainers that were bought as foals and needed some grass before going back into training in the autumn.

"My sister Megan works for John and Jess Dance and manages their racing club, Titanium Racing. We’re fortunate to get a bit of business from them, which is lovely as we get to follow them closely through Megan."

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