Horses are the local passion. And that goes back to way before Coolmore was established. The Magnier family have been offering Ireland’s and the world’s most discerning breeders access to Champions for generations, employing quite a few of the world’s finest natural horseman in Ireland, the US and Australia.

The yard you’re looking at here is known, with ample justification, as the Home of Champions. It’s just outside Fethard, Co. Tipperary. Coolmore was founded by John Magnier, his father in law, local legend Vincent O'Brien, rated as the greatest Trainer in Britain and Ireland of the 20th century, and Robert Sangster. Coolmore is still led by John Magnier today.

It’s a simple cycle. Buy or breed the best, frequently from the Northern Dancer line. Send them to our resident trainer, Aidan O’Brien, who is already acknowledged as something of a genius with horses, and wait for the results. That was the route taken by Galileo, Johannesburg and Giant’s Causeway, among others, to Coolmore.

Whereas the thoroughly exceptional racehorses Fusaichi Pegasus, Peintre Celebre, Tale Of The Cat, Grand Slam and Encosta de Lago were acquired for our farms in Ireland, the US and Australia. In the photograph here, on the right, is the homebred Sadler’s Wells, 14 times Champion Sire. His son Montjeu, on the left, looks like making it a dynasty.

We’ve mentioned, briefly, a selection of the sires with runners. To describe their impact as sensational is, for once, to understate matters. Montjeu, for instance, has made perhaps the best start at stud since, well, since his extraordinary sire, Sadler’s Wells. But our farms are also home to horses whose progeny have yet to race, because our business, and yours, is all about finding the next great sire. Which is precisely what Choisir, Fastnet Rock, Hawk Wing, High Chaparral, One Cool Cat or the notably handsome Danehill Champion, Oratorio, might turn out to be. The search is never done, and Coolmore people always have an eye out for the exceptional.

There is no sure path to the gate you’re looking at here, and only the finest of prospects and proven sires ever make it here at all. But there is a well worn one, and it’s via Ballydoyle, the racing arm of Coolmore. Established by Dr. M.V.O’Brien, one of the founders of Coolmore, Ballydoyle was to send out, time and again, some of the greatest racehorses of the 20th century.

The finest of them retired to stand here. Today, the Master of Ballydoyle is one Aidan O’Brien who, despite being no relation, is already showing signs of following in some singular footsteps. He is Ireland’s Champion Trainer, again. And the flow of Champions from Ballydoyle to Coolmore continues, unabated.