Coolmore Australia 2016

History

From the Blackwater Valley to the Hunter Valley

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.

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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