A rich seam for Ballycrystal

THE LEADING POINT-TO-POINT HANDLERS, names such as Colin Bowe, Donnchadh Doyle and Denis Murphy are firmly established as powerful figures in the NH marketplace.

Not only are they selling high-class talents for six-figure sums on a regular basis, their business model dictates that they are also significant investors in the unbroken store horse market. But there is another generation of trainers coming on stream, too, plenty of whom are proving equally adept at turning base metal into solid point-to-pointing gold.

One such trainer is the 38-year-old Matthew Flynn O’Connor, who operates out of Ballycrystal Stables in the point-to-point heartland of Wexford.

O’Connor, who grew up immersed in ponies and hunting, first dipped his toe into the pointto-point world with an interest in horses trained by Monbeg Stables’ Sean and Donnchadh Doyle, but says he always had ambitions of having his own operation in time. The commercial realities of training racehorses, which have been brought into sharp relief by the disparity between prices at the sales and returns on the racecourse, made the point-to-point model more appealing than racing under Rules, O’Connor says.

“We always wanted to do our own thing and we were either going to buy them to race them on the track or we were going to go down the selling route and try to produce good young horses who can go on for other trainers,” he says. “You can only do one or the other and it’s a very expensive game either way.

“If you’re buying expensive stores and deciding to keep a few to go on with, you have to be operating at the top end so they pay their way.

“So we decided we wanted to go the other way and treat it as a business and buy them as two- and three-year-olds and produce them as four-year-olds.” O’Connor, who started the current campaign with 45 pointers, says he spent time with the Doyles as well as Colin Bowe before embarking on his own training career. He has clearly learned plenty from those past masters having enjoyed some noteworthy early successes.

On the track his talents have been advertised by Sporting John, whom O’Connor saddled to win a Borris House maiden before a £160,000 transfer to JP McManus and Philip Hobbs, for whom he landed the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase.

“The Grade 1 horses don’t come along too often so we’re absolutely delighted with Sporting John. We never thought we’d have such a good horse so early on.” Such results have given buyers confidence in the Ballycrystal brand – at last year’s Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale, O’Connor sold not one but two lots for north of £300,000.

LEADING THE WAY was the wildly impressive Lingstown winner Deeply Superficial, who went to Gordon Elliott and Aidan O’Ryan for a salestopping £385,000, while earlier in the session Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls combined at £305,000 for Stay Away Fay, another debut winner at Lingstown.

This pair perfectly illustrate the rewards on offer for trainers who buy smartly and prepare their horses with skill – the pair cost a combined £65,000 at the store sales, but generated a windfall of £690,000!

“We had a very good day at Cheltenham,” says O’Connor, modestly. “I’ve had luck before as I owned a horse with Donnchadh Doyle called Classic Getaway, who made a lot of money [£570,000] at Yorton. But, having gone out under my own name, we never dreamed we’d be topping a Cheltenham sale so early on.

“The two horses are pretty special though, and based on the reports I’ve heard on Deeply Superficial. I think we could hear a good bit more about her.” While examples such as Deeply Superficial may make the game look straightforward, O’Connor says trainers have their share of pressure to deal with, particularly when it comes to going toe-totoe with the established names at the store sales.

“Don’t get me wrong, when they win like Deeply Superficial you are going over to the sales with your chest out and you’re looking for it all,” he says. “But, at the same time you have to get there, get through the vets and there’s plenty of pressure, too. You also have to get the trainers’ trust so they can have confidence when you’re telling them this is the horse they want, especially when they cost plenty of money. But, when you’re in the ring and the price starts to get going, it becomes a bit more enjoyable!

“Believe it or not there’s probably more stress during the weeks when you’re buying these horses than when you’re getting them over the line.

“You’re investing an awful lot of money and you only get one chance to buy them. Everything has to be right, their conformation has to be right, they need to be good movers, and they want to have a bit of pedigree… but the more of that they have, the more expensive they become!”

He continues: “If you get a horse going into the ring who ticks all the boxes, they become nearly impossible to buy because it’s at such a high level now. The likes of Donnchadh Doyle, Colin Bowe and Pat Doyle, they’re having plenty of winners and have the money to back them up and can afford to buy those expensive ones.

“When you’re starting off it’s hard to stand up there and give fifty grand for one when all you’re getting is a horse you don’t know much about and a head collar!

“There’s a lot of pressure when you’re trying to buy the right one. But it’s something we thought we’d go at positively because if you win your pointto-point, go back to the sales, tick all the boxes and it happens on the day, then you do get well paid.”