Josestown Farm

AS BOOK 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale approaches, Martin Cooney is once again experiencing a familiar feeling.

It was one he had last November when Jossestown Farm, the operation in Fethard, County Tipperary, that he runs with partner Elaine Shaw, were preparing to offer Plying, their mare in a million who had turned out to be the dam of multiple Group 1 star Alcohol Free, in the Goffs Breeding Stock Sale.

They had found her for just €21,000, two days after the future Cheveley Park, Coronation and Sussex Stakes winner and now July Cup champion had been sold as a foal. The Hard Spun mare would join the Yulong Investments fold for €825,000.

It was a life-changing sum of money but Cooney had enjoyed Plying being part of it.

“I suppose you buy a mare with the idea that you needed to do that if it did happen, obviously she was worth a lot of money, and you have it in your head that, right, you’re selling her, but when it does happen then you realise she was part of the family,” he recalls.

“My father passed away that June and he would have gone out and been giving her a nighttime feed and all that, if he had had his way, he was a real stockman and probably would have kept her but for me and Elaine at the time, she’s worth so much, she could do a lot for putting the yard forward for doing what I need to do with it.”

Up for grabs at Park Paddocks is Plying’s final product from Jossestown, a Gleneagles filly. Cooney’s fate now lies in the hands of the market.

“It’s a funny one all right,” he says. “She’s a good looking filly, correct and a good mover, it’s all there.

“She’s got the same characteristics as her mother, and probably Alcohol Free, in that she’d let you know who’s boss. All the family were the same. They’re nice, good tempered, but I suppose the word you’d use is hardy.

“I think with Alcohol Free, Oisin Murphy and all the others say that in the box she’d let you know it’s her place.”

He adds: “You’re always getting a bit more worried about everything. I like pinhooking, buying and selling but it [keeping the Gleneagles] has crossed my mind yes, and I suppose it depends how much she makes.

“The sales have been going well so far, and if things continue on, I could get a great price. And if not, I might go down a different route, who knows.”

The couple have a wealth of experience, with Shaw working at Kiltinan Castle Stud while Cooney, who still helps to break horses in for PJ Colleville when he has time, worked for Mouse Morris, rode his first winner for Enda Bolger and had a spell with Harry Fry.

While in Britain, his father Jim, who kept the odd mare alongside the cattle and sheep at Jossestown, rang and asked him if he would consider moving back to the farm.

“I knew when he said that, without saying it, he wanted me home,” he says. “Dad was pushing on at the time and I knew it was time to maybe get back to the real world, there was kind of a farm there waiting for me.

“There was a lot to be done to it, but I’ve spent a lot of time trying to bring it forward. I enjoy it but you either have the love of the land in you, or you don’t.”

Cooney, who is an earnest, thoughtful man, has already put some of the Plying proceeds to good use. He has installed security cameras, a lunge ring and walkers, and is expanding the business into foaling and sales preparation. Aside from Plying, he is readying five yearlings for the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale, including a Lope De Vega colt for breeders Newtown Anner Stud.

He says: “I’m getting phone calls from people I wouldn’t normally get them off, they’re saying that the horses look well and so on, so hopefully I can get more business by doing it right and them doing well at the sales.

“It’s the road I’ve decided to go down. I sold a couple at the Land Rover this year that went well, and it might pull in clients for all that.”

He has also begun the search to find another broodmare. Cooney and Shaw had narrowed their shortlist to just two mares when unearthing Plying, and the strictest criteria remains in place.

“I suppose there were one or two who caught my eye but maybe I was undervaluing them a bit, or maybe at the time it seemed like they were overpriced what they made, they didn’t seem value,” he says.

“There were a few I went after but I was trying not to get carried away just because you’ve maybe made a few quid! I hopefully will stick to the kind of things that got me to where I am so far.”

COONEY’S one regret is that he has not managed to see Alcohol Free run in the flesh, but her contributions have been well received from across the Irish Sea – as was the maiden success of her Starspangledbanner younger half-sister Hooked On You, who was bought by John and Jess Dance.

“Probably maybe through my own fault I’ve perhaps been too focused on work, but I like being busy,” he admits.

‘She’s got the same characteristics as her mother, and probably Alcohol Free, in that she’d let you know who’s boss’

INTERVIEW

Martin Cooney of Jossestown Farm chats to Tom Peacock as he prepares to sell their final product of supermare Plying

“I was hoping she’d continue on this year and maybe win another Group 1 before the filly was for sale, but she’s done nothing but be good for the family, all she’s done is improve the page.”

There was, though, a telling reminder during the season with Alcohol Free’s two-year-old half-brother of how sometimes it can be the wiser thing to cash in the chips.

“There was a Dandy Man colt, typically we called him Danny, but Danny was a lovely foal and Joe Foley bought him as a foal but unfortunately I think he died when in training this year,” he says.

“We were waiting for him to come out. He had a great name, Hidden Ambush, and we always thought he could be a little pocket rocket. If you were to watch him going round the field as a foal, he could fairly lift it. We were kind of hoping he’d come out and help the page too.

“That’s the thing, though. With the Gleneagles I suppose there’s a fine line between keeping her, or if she’s too valuable to keep. It’s like anything, you’d love to keep her and keep her foals but, at the same time, there could be four legs in the air one morning and you have nothing.”