Family business

WE HAVE BECOME SO accustomed to Peter and Ross Doyle buying blue-chip champions across the board that the profile of one of their more recent star purchases, the Group 1-placed Happy Romance, has a pleasingly nostalgic feel to it.

The Dandy Man filly was sourced by the Doyles at their happiest hunting ground of Doncaster, and for the bargain sum of £25,000. Her breeder and vendor Jimmy Murphy of Redpender Stud had previously sold the champion Canford Cliffs and high-class half-brothers Estidhkaar and Toormore to the Irish father-son team of agents.

Trained by Richard Hannon jnr – who else? – as a two-year-old Happy Romance won 2020’s Weatherbys Super Sprint, the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Stakes and the Group 3 Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes, in which she took the notable scalp of Alcohol Free.

This year, she has won the Listed Chelmer Fillies’ Stakes and the Hackwood Stakes (G3) and finished fourth in the Haydock Sprint Stakes (G1) to take her career earnings to well in excess of ten times her purchase price. Her value as a broodmare prospect is, of course, much higher still.

So, is it fair to still think of Happy Romance as the archetypal Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock horse, even when they’ve bought winners at all points of the distance spectrum – sprint sensations galore, crack milers such as Canford Cliffs, Dick Turpin and Paco Boy, middle-distance marvels such St Leger Classic runner-up Mojo Star, Japan and Pether’s Moon, and even a celebrity staying chaser in Lostintranslation?

“Some agents don’t like being pigeonholed but we don’t mind it if it’s for buying good horses!” says Ross with a laugh.

“Yes, of course, Happy Romance is the sort of horse the agency made its name with. I think she’s only going to get better, too, and could do some serious damage later this season and next year as well, if she’s kept in training.

“If we had four or five like her running for us each year we’d be very happy!”

Thankfully, the Doyles usually do have more than a handful of high-class runners advertising their agency on an annual basis, and that has been the case for Doyle ever since he made his first serious foray into buying horses 20 years ago this sales season.

Before that, Doyle had been interested in the family business for as long as he can remember.

“When I was a kid Peter trained five or six point-to-pointers from our home in County Wicklow; it was much more of an amateur sport back then compared to what it is now, although it was still an important educational ground for young NH horses in Ireland,” he recalls.

“We used to go to the point-to-points as a family, and we’d walk the track together. There were some tough days but also some good days, and the good days were great. We’d go back to the local pubs with the trophy to celebrate. It was great fun – I remember that vividly.”

To demonstrate a truth that every bloodstock agent will know – that the same pedigree can produce wildly varying results – Doyle’s brother Craig has next to no interest in racing, although he has shown the family knack for success by working his way to a senior position in the prominent technology company Commscope.

DOYLE, on the other hand, was hooked on the industry from a young age, although he did take a small detour before following his father into the agency.

“I was always keen on it and loved being around the horses and watching the racing on TV, especially when Peter started working with Liam Browne on the Flat and it all became very interesting,” he says.

“I did a business studies degree after school, and then rugby played a big part in my life. I played for Ireland in a Rugby World Cup Sevens qualifier, which was a nice honour, and won the All-Ireland League with St Mary’s in 2000. That was probably the last hurrah for me in the sport.

“Not long after that, at the age of 23 or 24, I went into racing full-time. Before then I’d been going around the sales with Peter

whenever I could between college, and had met the likes of Liam Browne and Richard Hannon snr.

“Then the following year I met Richard jnr at Goffs and we just sort of hit it off, really.”

It was during that sales season in 2001 that Doyle and Hannon jnr struck up a productive business relationship, just as their fathers had done at Deauville around 15 years earlier. The new alliance was anointed with the sort of ingenious purchases the older generation had become renowned for.

“We were never pushed together but Richard jnr had one or two clients to buy for so I helped him out, and we just had similar ideas about things and got on well together,” says Doyle.“We bought Rockets ‘N Rollers, who was unbeaten at two and later won the Spring Trophy, and a useful horse called Pigeon Point at that first yearling sale we worked together; a few weeks later we found the CL Weld Park Stakes winner Rag Top in Newmarket. The rest is history, thank god.”

Thus Doyle became the third generation of bloodstock agents in the family, with Peter having also helped out his legendary father Jack before going it alone in the industry.

“Jack was some man,” he says. “He was Leinster champion sprinter, rode in the RDS and won a couple of shows there, played rugby for Ireland, and rode and trained a few point-to-pointers before buying and selling no end of good horses. He was a great character and a wonderful raconteur. I can see why people still talk about him today.”

Unsurprisingly, Doyle felt the weight of history on his shoulders when he embarked on becoming an agent, as well as no little burden of expectation.

“Oh, I had big shoes to fill, I knew that,” he says. “Some people might say it’s easy to follow in those footsteps, but it can have the reverse effect as well. When Richard jnr and I started out we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to try and live up to what our fathers had done, to show we could find those big winners at good prices too.

“You’re looking for those horses who can fly the flag for you, to prove you can do it, and that happened early.

“We’ve been lucky to work for some great owners who were extremely loyal and put their trust in us even at a young age. They saw we were willing to put our necks on the line, just like Richard snr and Peter had done, and Jack before them too. Clients appreciate it when you buy a horse you really like on spec and stand over it, it gives them confidence as well.”

It was only to be expected that Doyle would continue the agency’s fine reputation for unearthing accomplished athletes at bargain prices, as he learned his trade from Peter and his mother Anna, whose part in this story should not be underplayed.

“Anna supported Peter from the start,” says Doyle. “It was just the two of them for a while, and it was tough back then as they weren’t buying the numbers we have been for the last ten or 15 years.

“Anna brought an insurance agency on board to dovetail the buying. It ran for a long time and it was a very clever idea, as it meant the agency could provide clients the complete package of purchasing, transportation and insurance. It led to people giving them more business on the buying side.

“That was all Anna’s baby in the background, but she’s a very good judge of a horse, too. She comes from a family of accomplished show jumpers, and there are broadly similar ideas between the two disciplines in terms of what you want to see in a young horse and how they’re brought along.”

DOYLE SAYS THE KEY LESSONS he learned from his parents were to take a thorough approach to inspections, and to apply strict standards to the stock on show.

“They’ve always been very particular in seeing nearly every horse in a sale,” he says. “Having a catalogue with comments on every single horse’s page was always a big advantage to them, so that when they were standing around the ring with a client, or Liam Browne or Richard Hannon snr, and one of them had a question, they could immediately give a detailed answer from their notes.

“They’re also extremely strict on conformation, and they drilled that into me at the start. It’s so important to have naturally strong, correct individuals who’ll be able to take their racing.

“But then, after all that, you also have to bring something to the table yourself, learned through your own experience; to develop an instant feel for a horse, taking into account their looks, their movement and their attitude, and then to trust your instincts about what you’ve seen.”

Are there ever any disagreements between the generations?

“Not too many, we’d agree 99 per cent of the time,” says Doyle. “When we’re narrowing everything down to a shortlist and discussing our opinions we might have the odd ‘I’m not sure about that’ moment.

“But we’ve learned that it’s better to leave those horses on the list rather than take them off, because it might be a marginal thing we disagree on, and the margin between good and average horses can be very fine.

“So we take the view that three heads are better than one, and have another look at the horse in question. It’s always worth showing that horse to a trainer or client and they might like it, and it could just be their next good horse.”

Buying top-notch racehorses at reasonable prices will be a family affair for the foreseeable future.

“Peter and Anna are still a big part of the team, and will be for as long as they want to be,” says Doyle. “They enjoy the sale circuit, and have made lots of friends on it over the years, among all the consignors, buyers, pinhookers and other agents.

“Some might be competitors but they’re friends first and foremost; we’re all just trying to find the next good horse and they enjoy the camaraderie. It’s been a huge part of their life for such a long time and they’ll continue to do it for as long as they can.”

No doubt about it, there will be many more precocious and classy winners like Happy Romance who have ‘Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock’ stamped on their sales records to come in the years ahead.