Redpender Loaded For Yearling Season

Redpender Stud near Gowran in Kilkenny is home to Jimmy Murphy and his family and it is a farm that has also been the home at one stage or another to a number of future stallions, champion 2-year-olds, Group 1 winners and sale toppers under both codes of flat and National Hunt racing. These statistics have emanated from a broodmare band of never more than 10 mares.

TDN's Daithi Harvey caught up with Murphy to discuss his yearling drafts coming up at Tattersalls Ireland, Goffs Orby and Tattersalls Book 1, and some of his previous success in both the sales ring and on the racecourse.

TDN: You have two yearlings up in Tattersalls Ireland next week. What can you tell us about them?

JM: We have a Footstepsinthesand (GB) colt (lot 434) who is a half-brother to five winners. We bought him privately last November and he is a nice type. We also have a filly by Acclamation (GB) (lot 363). She is a good-looking, correct filly, not overly big but she is a sharp, early sort. She has had two nice pedigree updates since the catalogue was printed. Her half-brother Dark Shadow (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) won his maiden for Clive Cox while under the second dam Mrs Sippy (Blame) won a listed race in France recently.

TDN: Redpender Stud has two colts and two fillies going to Goffs the following week. All are up on day two, which should make for an exciting, albeit nervous, day.

JM: Yes, it will be full-on that day. We are happy with the four, the Dandy Man (Ire) colt (lot 327) is a lovely yearling. He is out of a half-sister to [dual stakes winner] Rising Shadow (Ire) (Efisio {GB}), who we sold as a yearling a good few years ago. I bought him as a foal [for €40,000] last year at Goffs and Dandy Man is enjoying a good run of things. We've had a bit of faith in Dandy Man for a while; we pinhooked Parbold (Ire) a few years ago, he was one of his first good horses.

The Dark Angel (Ire) filly (lot 285) is a homebred and she is a nice, sharp filly. She's very smart and the mare [Expensive Date {Ire}] seems to be throwing them well as she had a lovely foal this year. The Gleneagles (Ire) colt (lot 296) is proper horse. We covered the mare [Fluvial {Ire}] with Gleneagles as she is closely related to the dam of [G1 Cox Plate winner] Adelaide (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). We sold the half-sister [Tivoli (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}] two years ago to Juddmonte and she won two races this year and is rated 86 so she has done okay.

We bred the Mastercraftsman filly as well (lot 297). She is a grand filly, we've had the mare For Evva Silca for years and we bred Warsaw and Meiner Eternal out of her so she has been good to us. Hopefully the Mastercraftsmans will be popular this year. He's always been a good sire and you would hope with Alpha Centauri fresh in the memory that his progeny should be in demand.

TDN: You've been associated with some high-class horses over the years such as Canford Clifffs (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}), Toormore (Ire) (Arakan) and Estidhkaar (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}). Can you tell us about how your involvement with those horses came about?

JM: It all began with a horse called Nasri (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}), who we sold well as a yearling. He was related to Canford Cliffs who I then ended up buying as a foal and although we didn't make any money on him as a yearling we always liked him. We then ended up buying nearly everything related to them including the dam of Canford Cliffs, Mrs Marsh (GB) (Marju {Ire}) [for 25,000gns]. We were obviously then very lucky with how Canford Cliffs turned out. Very few people would put a horse as good as that through their hands. We then sold Mrs Marsh privately after Canford Cliffs won the Coventry S. at Royal Ascot.

TDN: The mare Danetime Out (Ire) (Danetime {Ire}) has also been a massive success story for Redpender Stud. What is the latest on her?

JM: Well, strictly speaking, Danetime Out is owned by my two sons but yes she has been a fantastic mare. I think she was a 5-year-old when we bought her and obviously since then she has bred Toormore, who was champion 2-year-old in 2013, and Estidhkaar, who won the G2 Champagne S. and is now standing at Tara Stud. She has a nice full-brother to Estidhkaar going to Tattersalls Book 1 (lot 323); she has a colt foal by Muhaarar (GB) and is now in foal to Churchill (Ire). We're very excited about the Dark Angel yearling; he has a lot going for him.

TDN: Redpender Stud is equally at home selling National Hunt horses and was one of the leading vendors at the Derby Sale at Tattersalls Ireland earlier this year, with two sold for €390,000. 2018 must rank as a pretty good year for the farm?

JM: It's been a brilliant year so far. We had a lean enough spell the previous few years so it was good to get. It's a family run operation with my sons Brian and Eoin a big part of the team. We'll all be working hard over the next few weeks so it would be nice to get a few more decent sales to make it all worthwhile.

We have 10 mares on the farm, all flat mares; we tend to buy National Hunt foals rather than breeding them and we pinhook a few flat foals each year as well. So as soon as the yearling sales are over we will be starting the process all over again.