Paisley Park the pick of a purple patch for Evergreen Stud

The wheel of fortune has certainly spun the way of Evergreen Stud in County Limerick in recent weeks, with its graduates barely putting a foot wrong.

Initiating the golden spell was Chantry House, a five-year-old son of Yeats bred by the farm's Conaghan family out of the Phardante mare The Last Bank and sold as a foal at Fairyhouse for €12,500. He was sent out to win a maiden point at Tattersalls Farm on December 9 and five days later was sent by handler Cian Hughes to the sales at Cheltenham, where he topped the results after being bought on behalf of JP McManus for £295,000.

Just over a week later it was Paisley Park who put his breeders at Evergreen Stud back in the spotlight. The Emma Lavelle-trained seven-year-old, by Oscar out of the Presenting mare Presenting Shares and co-incidentally another €12,500 Fairyhouse foal, landed the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in good fashion.

Fast-forward another five days and Paisley Park's two-years younger half-brother Present Value, a son of Gold Well who sold for €16,000 one lot after Chantry House at the 2014 Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale, broke his duck with an easy seven-length victory in a Chepstow maiden hurdle.

Chantry House tops the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham December Sale at £295,000Credit: Debbie Burt

As if all that weren't enough, Evergreen Stud rang in 2019 with two of its products finishing honourable runners-up on New Year's Day.

De Name Evades Me – a seven-year-old son of Vinnie Roe sold for €6,000 immediately after Paisley Park had passed through the ring – finished with a full head of steam in a valuable Cheltenham handicap hurdle, while Chantry House's seven-year-old Oscar half-brother The Last Day, sold for €8,500 and in training with Evan Williams, found only the exciting White Moon too good in an Exeter beginners' chase.

“It's been an incredible run,” says Micheal Conaghan, 23, who took over the reins of running Evergreen Stud from his grandfather Michael two years ago. “It was due as Presenting Shares had produced four earlier winners and a few like Henry King and Mr Grey were just below black-type, but suddenly it's just clicked for her.

“Presenting Shares is still with us. She hadn't delivered a foal since Present Value was born in 2014 until last year, when she gave us a Soldier Of Fortune filly just turned a yearling. We'll keep her until two before deciding what to do with her.”

There is an unusual story behind the acquisition of the dam, a 20-year-old half-sister to dual Thyestes Chase winner Preists Leap.

“She went through the ring at Fairyhouse as a foal and was bought by a gentleman for just 550gns,” explains Conaghan. “But my grandfather had wanted to buy her and missed her, so he chased the buyer up the country and gave Ir£1,200 to get her.”

Chantry House's 22-year-old dam The Last Bank has been at Evergreen Stud longer, having been bred by Michael Conaghan along with her half-sister Nancy Myles, a prolific winner for trainer Francis Flood and her owners, the musical duo Foster and Allen.

“She has produced Linnel, who was second in the Grand Sefton Chase, and On The Shannon, who was useful for Oliver McKiernan, but she also had a few quiet years before Chantry House and The Last Day came along,” says Conaghan. “She has picked up, as Last Day looks good and Chantry House is going to Nicky Henderson, which is exciting.”

Asked to put his finger on why the good run of form has occurred now, Conaghan says: “It's down to hard work and perseverance, and of course a bit of luck.”

Paisley Park on his way to victory in the Long Walk Hurdle at AscotCredit: Alan Crowhurst

Work ethic is something Conaghan doesn't lack, having spent spells working for numerous bloodstock outfits including Ballyvonane Stud, Bansha House Stables, Camas Park Stud, Egmont Stud and Yeomanstown, having completed the Irish National Stud course and having ridden in the odd point-to-point along the way. He is currently in Kentucky keeping his eye in at the Keeneland January Sale.

No wonder then, he is undaunted by the task of managing a stud which houses four National Hunt mares, two Flat mares and various pinhooks at a relatively young age.

“I was riding ponies at the age of seven or eight, at 17 I rode in points and as soon as I finished school at 19 I did the Irish National Stud course,” Conaghan says. “That's the horse business, we thrive on the work. We wouldn't do it if we didn't.”

Conaghan is also ambitious for the future of Evergreen Stud.

“I want to be trading at the top of the store market in the future; that's the plan,” he says. “We had a good touch with a Presenting at the Derby Sale last year [a gelding out of Belle Glory sold to Hill Farm for €44,000] and I think we have a draft in a lot better shape this year. We have a lovely Ocovango half-brother to Chantry House and a filly by Laurina's sire Spanish Moon who's a half-sister to the multiple Grade 2 winner Acapella Bourgeois.”

Conaghan is indeed ambitious but he is also pragmatic in the face of challenging market conditions.

“The market is tough at the moment but you've just got to make the best of it,” he says. “If your horses don't have the right sire or pedigree, it doesn't matter what the individual is like – the buyers won't even look at it. So we're going to have to cut back on numbers and concentrate on quality.”

Grandfather Michael's nurturing of families that have flourished in recent weeks and the transference across the human generations of a keen work ethic to the young Micheál should stand Evergreen Stud in good stead in its quest to become a leading vendor.

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