Stud farms join forces in a big lift for Galway breeding

By Michael Glynn

KILTORMER and Killimor may be among the core heartlands of hurling in Galway, but two friends are determined to forge a new reputation for the neighbouring areas by making them the bloodstock capital of the county.

John Lynch of Windmill View Stud in Kiltormer is already an old hand at breeding thoroughbreds with a variety of stallions that he has stood over the years, but now he has been joined in a similar undertaking by his long-time acquaintance Seán Whelan who has set up his own stud farm four miles away in Killimor.

Lynch and Whelan famously teamed up to breed Just A Par, winner of the Betfred Gold Cup Chase for trainer Paul Nichols at Sandown in April 2016. The duo struck paydirt with that horse when, as part of a syndicate of eight locals, they sold him for €330,000. Now, though, they have embarked on a friendly rivalry with both hoping to attract the cream of Galway’s broodmare band to their respective sires.

Lynch has stood a succession of stallions over the years at his 106-acre sheep farm, but it was words of encouragement from him that spurred his old ally Whelan, a builder by trade, into making the leap into starting his own thoroughbred breeding operation.

“I had been standing Irish Draught stallions to produce sport horses, but the mare owners wanted a bit of thoroughbred blood, and it was John Lynch who suggested I should go for it,” says Seán.

After initially standing the veteran Caerleon sire Pushkin last year, Seán experienced the frustration of discovering that the horse had developed fertility problems in his increasing years, so he was on the look-out for a promising young stallion last Autumn.

And his luck could hardly have changed more spectacularly. Having agreed to purchase the well-bred 3yo Legal Pomp from Jim Bolger, he drove to Carlow to collect him the following day — Saturday, October 24 — only to discover on arrival that the horse’s half brother, Mac Swiney, had just won one of the biggest 2yo races of the season, the Vertem Futurity Trophy Stakes (Group 1) at Doncaster. For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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