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The famous Blackwater Valley in Co. Cork, Ireland is
where the Coolmore stallion tradition began in the 1850s
with a man called Thomas Magnier. He started offering
local breeders a stallion called Edlington, whose services
cost the not inconsiderable sum of £3-0s-0d.
Thomas’s grandson, Michael, stood a horse called
Cottage, who sired Cottage Rake. Trained by the present
John Magnier’s father-in-law, the legendary Vincent
O’Brien, Cottage Rake won the Cheltenham Gold Cup 3
years on the trot, a feat which put him into a small handful
of highly exalted company.
Numerous champion jumping sires followed over the
decades, including the remarkable Deep Run. He won 14
sire championships, an amazing feat for a National Hunt
sire and his progeny landed all the major races at the
Cheltenham Festival.
Coolmore has shuttled stallions to Australia, including the
champion sire Last Tycoon, since the late 1970s. In 1996,
Coolmore Australia was founded in the Hunter Valley and
by 2005 the phenomenal Danehill had claimed his 9th
Australian champion sire title.
Fastnet Rock and Encosta de Lago have both topped the
sires’ table on more than one occasion in recent years.
What began with Thomas Magnier in the Blackwater
Valley, and which is still carried on today by his great-great
grandson Tom in the Hunter Valley, is a tradition of
standing top quality stallions.
History
From the Blackwater Valley
to the Hunter Valley
TomMagnier
, and his children
Charlie
and
Millie
, with the
top-class stallion
Royal Academy
Bsired 8=> SW@s worldwide,
grandsire of Black Caviar and broodmare sire of Fastnet RockC
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