Life comes full circle for stallion River Boyne at Goffs

The circle of life moves us all inexorably towards the destiny that awaits, to find our place on that 'path unwinding'.

For Tara Stud and River Boyne, that direction has brought them to Goffs and the November Foal Sale for the second time in seven years, but where once River Boyne was an unknown foal being presented to the public, now the handsome bay with a personality to match his looks and the constitution of an Iron Man contestant is starting all over again.

In the lifespan of a stallion, seven days can do so much, but seven years can seem like an eternity. In that time the story of River Boyne, the Grade 1 Frank E Kilroe Mile winner, has turned a full 360 degrees revolution with his first foals selling in Kildare Paddocks this week.

Back in November 2015, a colt foal by Dandy Man made his first public appearance at the Goffs November Foal Sale. Out of Clytha, a Mark Of Esteem half-sister to the multiple Group-winning miler and St James's Palace Stakes third Ventiquattrofogli, he was sold by his breeder Derek Iceton of Tara Stud to Ballyhane's Joe Foley, who stands his sire Dandy Man, for €20,000.

Less than a year later, River Boyne was back for the Sportsman's Sale, where he turned a healthy profit with his €65,000 purchase by Aidan O'Ryan and Gordon Elliott.

Following three runs at two for Elliott, he was purchased by the Cohen family's Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal to continue his career in California.

Once River Boyne arrived at Jeff Mullins' barn at Santa Anita, he never looked back. Successful in nine races, the highlight being that thrilling Grade 1 defeat of Get Stormy, he was also second in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby to Raging Bull and filled the runner-up position in the Shoemaker Mile.

His breeder kept a watchful eye on River Boyne's career, getting a thrill from watching him regularly wind his way through classy fields with a late burst of speed.

"Bringing him back to stand at Tara wasn't a vanity project," says Iceton. "I've bred plenty of good horses over the years, but we used to watch this horse racing on a Saturday night in California and he was as tough as an old boot.

"I loved his style of racing, he came from off the pace and was genuine and honest. The question of standing him was often in the back of my mind."

Forces that move the path intervened and River Boyne suffered an injury that meant time away from racing while he recuperated.

"He retired to stud, he could have gone back racing, but we put an offer in and they accepted it," says Iceton. "He retired sound with no issues, no wind problems or temperament issues and he's a lovely person. I would never stand a horse who had any problems like that."

Interestingly, Iceton reveals that how people regard horses standing at the farms where they were bred is not wholly in River Boyne's favour, despite the fact that larger operations regularly retire their own horses. When you run a smaller, independent operation, you are judged by different parameters.

Grade 1 winner River Boyne in actionCredit: Benoit Photo

"It would be easier not to stand a stallion that you bred than to stand one that you bred," he says. "It would be easier to let him go somewhere else and just use him because of the perception people have of a horse returning to his birthplace to stand."

The Tara team hadn't seen River Boyne since that November day in 2015, so it was with no little trepidation they greeted the arrival of the horsebox carrying him from the airport. They need not have felt any anxiety.

Iceton says: "I didn't go to California to see him, and when the horsebox pulled up I was thinking, 'This horse has a lot of miles on him, he's run and run and run, what's he going to be like?' But he hopped off the box, he was perfect and we smiled."

River Boyne settled easily into life as a stallion in the farm from where Key Of Luck developed his successful stallion career. At a fee of €5,000, he was pitched at an affordable level for commercial breeders - but don't let the fee create any illusions.

"Ironically the cheaper the horse is, the more correct he has to be for starters," explains Iceton. "A €5,000 horse has to be nearly perfect; he has to have the right attitude and a good female line and a good male line."

The acid test that Iceton employs is one he learned from the previous generation.

He says: "My father used to say to me about any horse we stood, 'Would you use him yourself?' Which was a great way of sorting things in your mind. If you're not prepared to use a horse yourself, then you shouldn't stand him. I've sent him lots of nice mares myself."

For pinhookers eyeing a market next year, there is a ready-made one in California as River Boyne's racing owners are keen to support him. Additionally, the demand in America for turf horses is growing and a two-year-old with decent form in Ireland or Britain will come on the radar of agents and owners.

Iceton says: "The Cohens are lovely people and are Dandy Man fans. They bought more Dandy Mans at the recent horses in training sales and they have said they will will support River Boyne at the yearling sales.

"He gave them such pleasure and fun during his racing career and they really want to continue that by racing his offspring."

The influence of American breeders and owners has been growing in the European market, with more and more travelling to the major sales in search of affordable and viable alternatives to the dirt behemoths and conglomerates which now proliferate.

A stallion who is widely recognisable as a top-class racehorse with form in America will have a certain cachet when it comes to sales time.

Lot 203 pictured as a newborn at Tara Stud

"There's no breeding industry worth speaking of in California any more and turf racing in America is where it's at now there, and you just have to look at the success of European horses in America over the last couple of years, not just the Breeders' Cup," says Iceton.

There is an element of fate at work in the story of how River Boyne came into existence.

Iceton says: "I was at the sales and wanted to buy a nice filly. William Morgan, who is a good friend of mine, was there and we divided up the sales ground between us but we never worked out who was going to one section of the ground, and it ended up that both of us went there separately.

"We came back and were having a cup of tea and William said to me, 'I've seen only one filly,' and I replied that I had seen just one I liked too, and it turned out to be the same filly, Clytha."

Clytha's filly foal is lot 712 and due to sell on Wednesday. By Dandy Man, she is an exciting prospect as a sibling of River Boyne from a family with Group winners under each of the three dams on her page.

"At the end of the day, I'm a commercial breeder and have to pay the bills," says Iceton. "

Lot 712 is a Dandy Man sister to River BoyneCredit: Alison Murphy Photography

But she's a lovely filly and a full-sister to a Grade 1 winner so I won't be crying into my beer if I end up bringing her home."

As it stands, there are eight foals from River Boyne's first crop slated to sell at Goffs over the four-day sale. He doesn't have the battalions of foals that other first-crop sires do, so he will have to make the most of his opportunities to create an impression.

Iceton says: "We have lovely foals by him here and at home. I have a brother to A Case Of You by him at home and I thought, having bred Group 1 winners in successive years, it would be a bit ridiculous not to bring the two together and see what they could achieve."

That foal is not in this week's sale, but Tara has a few others in its draft.

"He's going to have to do it himself, but they are honest horses and I think people will like them," adds Iceton. "The most important thing is that they go to good homes."

That is the next journey on the path unwinding which has led River Boyne from Ireland to glory underneath the Californian sun and back to where it all began. An unbroken circle.

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