Breakfast With Harry Sweeney – One Of Irish Racing's Great Pioneers And Master Of Paca Paca Farm

Harry Sweeney is one of Irish racing's finest exports. A qualified vet, he has been based in the Far East for 35 years, where he operates from the world renowned Paca Paca Farm as well as holding the position of President at Darley Japan. 

From big-money pinhooks to sleepless nights after some frightening losses, breeding Japanese Derby winner Deep Brilliante and how he engineered a plan to be granted an owner's licence in the country, Sweeney makes for a fascinating and entertaining Q&A. 

The Marco Polo of Irish racing sat down with Brian Sheerin for breakfast following the Select Sale in Japan. 

How do you reflect on the JRHA Select Sale?

I was reasonably pleased-I wasn't elated. I mean, it certainly wasn't the bonanza of last year for Paca Paca. Traditionally, we used to assess this sale in sumo terms. There is a term we commonly refer to in Japan that relates to sumo. It's when a mid-ranking wrestler would set out to win more bouts than he lost in a 13-day tournament. Then they were happy. That's called kachi-koshi. That is our bar for Paca Paca going into any sale and we achieved that. We had seven foals in the sale–one was consigned under a slightly different name–and we sold four. You have to be reasonable and, even with the weak exchange rate, the Baaeed (GB) foal sold for £275,000. For a foal of just three months old, that is fantastic business. There won't be many foals by Baaeed who sell for more than that at Tattersalls in December so I have to be pleased. However, when you look at what that same exact foal might have made had he been offered by Northern Farm for example, there is a little bit of a difference. But Northern Farm has a huge brand and the market appreciates their brand. Do you know the way they were selling Aston Martin cars on the sales complex? Well, some of my fellow breeders will be driving Aston Martins after the sale. I will be driving a Toyota Land Cruiser. But a Toyota Land Cruiser is still a very fine car and it suits me better. And do you know what? I feel privileged and lucky to have it.

Can that be frustrating?

Of course it can be frustrating but I have been here for 35 years so I accept it. And you might look across and question things but Japan is still a very good place to make a living so I am happy. This is a very special market, the Select Sale especially, and certainly Northern Farm is extremely dominant. You don't need AI to work that out. But even AI would be confounded by the scale of the dominance. But, listen, Northern Farm has invested heavily in its broodmare band and everyone working there works very hard so they deserve a lot of the success they are enjoying. While other farms might begrudge that success, I don't, because a rising tide lifts all boats. But I have been selling at the Select Sale since day one and I have seen good days, I have seen bad days and I have also seen brilliant days. I am reconciled with it. It's not the pressure that it used to be. Our kids are grown up and we've paid for their education. My farm is also paid for so it's not the do-or-die scenario of continuing in business or going bankrupt like it used to be. 

Does that change how you operate? With less responsibility you can essentially take more risk.

We can take more risks, of course. But you sleep a bit better when doing so. 

Including lot 400, who will be the first Baaeed foal to be sold anywhere in the world. He's one of six foals being offered by Irishman Harry Sweeney of Paca Paca Farm. pic.twitter.com/pZTxVNmjbZ

— Brian Sheerin (@BrianSheerin91) July 9, 2024

Can you tell me about some of those sleepless nights? There were times when you bit off a lot. 

There were good years and bad years. When the market crashed in 2008, that Select Sale was an absolute disaster for us. A wipeout. I think we had 12 foals in the sale and we sold just one. We had four young sons at the time. I can remember we had planned a holiday in Indonesia and Borneo shortly after the sale. I can remember being in the middle of the jungle in Borneo, deep inside the rainforest and thinking, 'I am in some hole right now'. I was in deep-I was deeply fu***d. That's all I could think of on that holiday and there was some sort of poeticness to the whole thing as, here I was in the middle of the jungle cut off from civilisation when, in business, I was in the biggest hole I had ever found myself in. 

How did you get out?

I worked hard. Worked really, really hard. 

A lot of well-known horses in Japan, America and even in Europe were born and raised in Paca Paca. Even last year's St Leger winner Continuous (Jpn) is a graduate of yours. That must give you a lot of pleasure. 

We have a lot of good clients and it's great to see them doing well. Maybe we don't deserve some of the accolades because, here in Japan, there is a clear distinction between the mare's owner and where a foal is born. Oftentimes, it's the farm at which a racehorse was born that receives the accolades. The racing papers carry the breeding farm, but that is not the breeder. So, if Brian Sheerin for example has a mare at Paca Paca, he won't get mentioned in the papers but Paca Paca will. 

In your role with Darley Japan, you have welcomed well-known horses in Europe like Hukum (Ire) and Adayar (Ire) to the stallion roster. How have they been received and is it difficult taking on the might of a 30-strong Shadai Stallion Station roster?

We welcomed another new horse, Palace Malice, to Japan recently. He's standing at ¥3.5 million and has covered 262 mares and has more than 200 of those in foal. You know, if you bring the right product, you will do well. A lot of good mares–some from Northern Farm and Shadai Farm–have been sent to Palace Malice. So if you have the right stallion at the right price, you can survive. But you need to be lucky as well. Two days after we announced the deal for Palice Malice, his son Jantar Mantar (Jpn) won a Group 1 race. A lot of people in Japan thought 'Harry Sweeney is brilliant' and I haven't dissuaded them from that thought! But the fact is, we were really lucky. Jantar Mantar went on to become the champion two-year-old in Japan and is a Group 1 winner at three as well. So it worked out but there are plenty of occasions in bloodstock when it doesn't.

You have a number of horses in the Selection Sale. What sort of trade should we be expecting there?

It will be decent trade without being the bonanza of the Select Sale but that is a complete bubble. That's why I would advise absolute caution for a foreigner looking in on the Select Sale. The Selection Sale is the real market. 

If you were to find yourself in a position of power or one where you could make meaningful change to the way racing was run back home in Ireland, what would you bring back from your learnings in Japan?

I'm not really interested in commenting on that as I don't know enough about it. But, the big difference here is that we have a Tote that runs betting and we have a government subsidiary that owns the Tote, the tracks and the two main training centres and they are reinvesting in racing in Japan. It's all controlled by one body and there's great transparency. We don't have competing forces. We have the JRA and then we have a second body, which is the NAR. While the JRA is effectively a semi-state body, a subsidiary of the department of agriculture, the local racing is run by the NAR. That is run by the local municipal governments as well so that is effectively a semi-state body, albeit at a different level. They work very much in tandem together so it is a very well-regulated and uniformed body which has one focus. Unfortunately, racing has evolved in a very different way in Europe. Japan is a racing utopia…..almost. Now, the 'almost' in that sentence carries plenty of weight, but there are a lot of great things about racing here-enormous prize-money, great fan attendance, great love of the horse, an excellent demographic of young people going to the races and more. You go to any of the big meetings in Japan and it costs £1 of an admission fee and that includes a racecard. People dress casually as well. It's very casual, they bring their kids, bring a picnic and it's just a great day out. 

And what could I take back home to Ireland? Outside of prize-money and fan engagement, the biggest thing I have taken from this trip is how important distance is to the breed over here? For example, there are only two Group 1 races over sprint trips in Japan. 

Credit to the JRA for that. Even our 2,000 Guineas, that's run over 10 furlongs. Japan is the country of 10 furlong two-year-old maidens. Where else would you find that? Even Deep Impact (Jpn). He debuted over 10 furlongs. That's the way it is. The reverse is true, in that there are very limited opportunities for sprinters over here. If I was to go back to my main employment with Godolphin, as opposed to my hobby farm at Paca Paca [!], we raced some fine horses over here, including Fine Needle (Jpn). He was a champion miler/sprinter but in truth he was a sprinter. There are only two Grade 1 races in the entire programme under a mile out here and he won both of those. 

Another thing that was quite noticeable was how the Japanese place perhaps even more emphasis on the book rather than the model compared to other parts of the world. 

Oh yes. But, to be honest, this is an imprecise science. A few years ago, myself and my farm manager, James Butler, set ourselves a task of finding what we thought would be the worst value of the Select Sale. It was just a little bit of a game between ourselves. We had looked at nearly all of the yearlings in the sale. There was one filly in particular and she had shocking-and I mean shocking-front legs. She went on to make a lot of money and we both agreed that she was the worst value of the sale. What happened? She went on to become a Group 1 winner in Japan. Pedigree is very important in Japan. And size, actually. They are not as critical on conformation and things like that. But, you know what, maybe they're right. Maybe we are too caught up on conformation and things like that at home. 

I have just had a text message from Jack Cantillon asking 'how the Christopher Columbus of Irish racing is getting on…..'

Well, if Jack was more familiar with his history, he might have said the Marco Polo of Irish racing because Christopher Columbus sailed west whereas Marco Polo went east!

I actually didn't know a lot about you or Paca Paca before this trip and it's only now that I am realising the scale of the achievement. I'm not just saying this because you're sitting in front of me but, what you have achieved in Japan, it must be up there with some of the great pioneering feats in Irish racing. 

Well, that's a very kind thing to say, so thank you. But it has been acknowledged, and I did win the inaugural Wild Geese Award at the ITBA Awards a number of years ago. That was a great honour. But you talk about great pioneering feats, but sometimes fate deals you a hand. You have to understand that when I came out here it was a very different era. I graduated from college in 1983 and those were very dark days in the Irish economy. There were huge unemployment rates in Ireland at that time. A lot my class emigrated because there were simply no other options. It was by chance that I ended up in Japan. Now, it was a tough job, but one I was well paid for. Because I was being well paid, and because things were so bad in Ireland, I was going to f****** suck it up. I'm not saying it was easy because it wasn't but anyone who succeeds in business does the same. Life is not easy and success doesn't come easy to anyone. So yes, I did work hard. But, do you know what? I worked hard because I had no other option. And that's the truth. It needed to work. When I first came here, I was a bit like you. I could see the scale of things. All I could think was 'wow'. I could see the scale of opportunity here. I said to myself, 'imagine, just imagine, if I could get a tiny piece of the pie-even a tiny piece of the crust.' So I set about doing that and got a few crusts along the way. It's a big, big pie out here. 

Given your veterinary background and the Japanese approach to buying horses, did you have to forget much of what you learned with regards to conformation etc?

There is a very big distinction between buying a horse to sell on and buying a horse to race. They are completely different things. Generally speaking, they need to be correct but I can tell you that, the longer you stay in this business, the more you realise that winners-and champions-come in all shapes and sizes. Yes, I am a little less critical of certain things as opposed to when I came out here first. One thing that is unique in Japan is that most horses in Japan race and Japanese trainers do a very good job in getting their horses to the track. If you end up with a sound horse, there's a fantastic programme out here. 

A lot of yearlings in Europe will have had corrective measures such as screws etc. Would that be as big out here?

It's not as big but it's coming along. There were certain yearlings at the Select Sale and it was clear that they had had screws. It's funny, you don't have to declare that but you do have to declare if they have had any OCD surgery. At the Selection Sale, you need to declare where any surgery took place where an anaesthetic was used. So there are different rules for each sale. I could name a number of horses who had screws and went on to win Classics. There are plenty of great-looking horses, with great legs and a great walk, but they turn out to be bloody poor racehorses. Plenty! So I think we can get a little bit caught up on that. Say you are walking down the high street and you see this beautiful suit and you say, 'I want that'. Okay, it looks great, but it might not keep you warm. You might be better off going down the road and buying something half the price. It might not look as good but it will do a better job of keeping you warm and it costs you less money. In fact, the cheap horses are earning the very same as the expensive horses do here in Japan. Possibly, the best value to be had at the sales here in Japan is by buying the horses who RNAd. Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), the champion sprinter and sire of Almond Eye (Jpn), is a famous example of a high-class horse who failed to sell in the ring.

Continuous: Coolmore's St Leger winner was born and raised at Paca Paca | Scoop Dyga

Would you say that breeding the Japanese Derby winner Deep Brilliante (Jpn) stands out as your greatest achievement in the sport?

It's a big achievement when you can survive in business, educate your family and make a living. Anybody who can do that is doing well. But I would consider being granted my JRA owner's licence as my biggest achievement. That was huge because there was a lot of red tape there and I was aiming to be the first foreigner ever to be granted a JRA owner's license. On a lighter note, another thing I am proud of is the decriminalisation of wearing shorts to the sales! 

Can you paint a picture as to how difficult it was to get your foot on the ladder here in Japan?

Okay, well one of the first things I saw an opportunity to make money on was pinhooking here in Japan. So buying foals or yearlings in Japan and bringing them back and selling them in Europe or the USA. We had some astounding profits and some shocking losses doing that. But it was 25 or 30 years ago now when I tried to buy my first horse in Japan and, at that time, you didn't have to register to buy a horse but you did have to bring a deposit. That deposit was roughly $25,000 in cash. Now, there was a lovely filly at this particular sale and I can remember thinking, 'I need to give this a go.' Typical Irishman, I arrived at the sales company with my brown paper envelope with $25,000 in cash inside and there was pandemonium. Here was a foreigner wanting to buy at the sales. What do we do? They brought me upstairs to the office. So here I was, sitting at this long rectangular boardroom table, with a room full of white envelopes stuffed with $25,000 in cash along with my brown envelope. I was left thinking, why is my brown envelope not being treated the same as all of these white envelopes? Is my money not the same? The sales company would only let me buy the horse if I didn't use my own name. I needed to go through an agent. Also, I had to get a guarantor. That pissed me off big time. I was being treated differently, which wasn't very nice. But I ended up buying the horse and I kept the name card of that filly and got it framed. So, if you ever come to Paca Paca, you will see that hanging proud on the wall. That is where this all started. From there, I spent a lot of time reading up on what I could and couldn't do at the sales and in racing in Japan. It spurred me on.

Don't piss off an Irishman!

I had to harangue people but I got a lot of support. I even got support from within the Irish government. To become a JRA owner, it's very difficult. It's much easier to become an owner in Europe than it is over here. The amount of paperwork that you have to submit is enormous. Most people wouldn't go through with it as it is very invasive. I spent years getting ready for this as there are all sorts of parameters you need to hit in terms of pay and taxes before you could be accepted. When the time came to consider my application, I thought, 'do you know what would be a big help here is a little bit of a word of endorsement for Harry Sweeney'. Through a friend of mine who happened to be working in the Government press office, I asked if there would be any chance that our then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern would write a letter of support. The good news came and I was told to draft something and send it in. I drafted something, where it mentioned the great relationships between Japan and Ireland, some of the horses who had been based at the Irish National Stud for Japanese clients and the fact that Rathbarry had a Japanese-bred stallion at the time. And then at the end, by the way, Harry Sweeney is currently applying for his JRA owner's licence and we consider this to be very important. Something like that. It was addressed to the president of the JRA but, when Bertie and his colleagues sent it over, they crossed out the president of the JRA and wrote, 'Dear Mr Koizumi' instead. Who was Mr Koizumi? He was the Japanese prime minister at the time. So the letter came through in the diplomatic bag where diplomatic communications are shared. The ambassador gets it, he toddles down to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and then it gets circulated to the Department of Agriculture. It finally percolates down to the JRA. Here we have the Japanese and Irish prime ministers advocating for Harry Sweeney who is applying for his owner's licence. You couldn't make it up. So, when I said I had support, I had a lot of it. Brian Kavanagh supported me as well. I didn't do this entirely on my own and I am grateful for everybody who has helped me.