Breeding the next generation of Cheltenham racing heroes

By Michael Glynn

Stallion owners in the western counties operate in adversity at the best of times with their breeder brethren in the premier thoroughbred counties reluctant to support them, but when the fates conspire against you, it makes things all the more difficult.

Such was the experience of John Lynch of Windmill View Stud in Kiltormer last Autumn when, in the matter of weeks, he lost his promising Galileo stallion Gatewood and a foal half-brother by him to a €546,000 sale topper in Hong Kong in separate circumstances — with his misfortune then being compounded when the dam of the latter aborted a sibling as a consequence.

“Anyone who works with horses will know that disappointment and loss lurk around every corner,” says John phlegmatically.

His stoic attitude to such a sequence of setbacks is born out of a greater tragedy endured by John and his wife Rita when they lost their eldest son Johnny, at the age of 20, in a car accident 13 years ago.

“Our son’s death took a long, long time to come to terms with and I suppose something like that puts everything else into perspective,” John points out. “You never look at things the same again.

“I was crestfallen when I discovered Gatewood dead in his box one morning last September, and the disappointment was doubled within a couple of weeks with what happened to the foals. But none of that compares to real grief . . . the loss of someone you love. It pales in comparison.”

Gatewood, trained by John Gosden to win the G3 Prix de Reux at Deauville and the listed Wolferton Handicap over 10 furlongs at Royal Ascot — he later won the G3 Geelong Cup in Australia — has left 100-plus progeny to represent him on the racecourse after his four seasons at stud, and John fully expects them to make an impact.

“He had done very well for us, covering up to 40 mares a year and his foals were selling well, regularly making over €5,000 which was more than double his covering fee. The oldest are now three year-olds and I will be surprised if there are not some very good ones among them.

“He had the class and speed to win at Royal Ascot, the durability to come through 28 races on two continents perfectly sound, and he had great conformation and temperament. What’s more, he stamped his stock in his own likeness and they were all bays. I always take that as a good sign in a stallion.”

Although John has the compensation of five of his own mares in foal to Gatewood, the one he was most looking forward to, a colt out of the US-bred Mining mare Mine Inning, got himself entangled in sheep wire last Autumn and, in his panic, suffered fatal injuries. To worsen the woe, the mare, stressed by this freak event, lost the foal she was carrying.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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