Shaw finding the right material as Silky Thoroughbreds makes a strong start

There’s no great secret to the meaning behind Silky Thoroughbreds, which made an appropriately smooth breeze-up consigning debut at last week’s Tattersalls Guineas Sale.

The man behind it is 26-year-old Tipperary-based former point-to-point and amateur rider Eoin Shaw, who was responsible for a Sergei Prokofiev colt (lot 397) who made a very respectable 88,000gns following on from a modest yearling price. 

"It’s my nickname," Shaw explains politely. "It’s from playing hurling for Killenaule. I’ve had it for years, probably since I was nine or ten. I don’t really know why I have it but someone must have said it once and it kind of stuck. I’d be known more as Silky than someone calling me Eoin."

The moniker might very well have also made day-to-day life a little less confusing as Shaw’s mentor into this side of the industry has been another Eoin, Eoin McDonagh of the burgeoning Shanaville Stables.

They met when they were both working for trainer Harry Kelly and McDonagh would later give Shaw the first of a small handful of point-to-point winners when Makeshift struck at Nenagh in February 2020.

He also owes his boss a good turn for noticing this colt, who was bought privately for just €9,000 at Book 2 of last year’s Goffs Orby Sale. The powerful chestnut son of the high-flying freshman sire is a great-grandson of US Grade 1 winner Bonne Ile.

Eoin Shaw has spent the last few years in the breeze-up world

"I went up to the sales and Eoin was up there too," says Shaw. "I hadn’t seen him before he went into the ring, Eoin saw him in the chute when he came back out unsold, he told me he was a nice horse. He said I should have a look at him, see what I thought and buy him if I liked him."

Shaw picked up the colt and another at the same sale, a son of Profitable from the family of Albany Stakes winner and 1,000 Guineas runner-up Cuis Ghaire, and set about preparing them himself.

"They were actually two straightforward horses," he says. "I rented a little house with my girlfriend, which has a barn with four stables beside it. I boxed the horses up every day a mile up the road to Martin Hassett, who trains horses, and his son Jack would ride out with me."

After breezing on the Rowley Mile under Killian Leonard, the colt was selected by Highflyer Bloodstock at the auction itself. 

"It’s mad money when you think of it really," says Shaw. "For the investment you put in and you get that, it’s great. I was probably more anxious the last month or so when he looked like he was working well.

"Just to get him there was more of a relief than anything. He was busy, he showed away and a couple of people came back for the second show, so things went well. I’m not sure where he’s going but the right connections bought him."

Shaw was back riding out for McDonagh the day after his sales ring success and he now has a little time before seeing how his other project, the son of Profitable, does.

The Sergei Prokofiev colt (397) breezes before his sale to HighflyerCredit: Alisha Meeder

"I’ve entered him in France for the sale in July at Arqana," he explains. "It’s just the number of horses this year entered for breeze-ups and when you’re a name starting out on your own, it’s kind of hard to get in, but he’s actually a nice horse. 

"There are two months more with him. He’s had an easy time of it while I was away at the Guineas, so there’s no panic."

McDonagh singled out Shaw, who has had an investment in Shanaville breeze-up horses in the past, for praise as a "hard worker" after he rode his maiden winner on Makeshift and this seems to remain the case for a young consignor making his way in the game.

"I suppose the riding thing didn’t work because of weight and that was probably the next option, doing horses myself," he says.

"I’ve been working for Eoin the last five or six years, but if I was riding out in another place I’d go back to Eoin in the evening. He’d have prepped them, we worked it out that way.

"I’ve been lucky for the last few years, the ones I’ve had with Eoin with first-season sires. This lad, last year we had a Blue Point, the year before a Sioux Nation, they made money; the year before there was a Time Test who made money as well. I’d be keen to do it again."

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