By Brian Sheerin
One of the youngest consignors in the business, Fearghal Hogan has enjoyed some brilliant pinhooking results under his own Churchland Stud banner and at just 33 years of age, he can boast something that the majority in this business can only ever aspire to achieve, through his joint-ownership of Group 1 winner Laws Of Indices.
The County Carlow native is refreshingly honest about the fact he found the going tough at the yearling sales in 2024, opens up about some of his biggest touches in the game and shares plans for recent stallion acquisition Inns Of Court (GB) in the first TDN Europe Q&A of the winter.
How do you reflect on the year?
I'll be completely straight with you, I only had an okay year–not as good as the past three or four years. I don't know what that was down to. I've only been consigning horses for four or five years now and, while we have sold some good horses, it is still hard to compete with the bigger outfits. There was a tightening in the market. It may not have looked like there was after Book 1 and 2 and even the Orby, but I know there was a tightening. When there is a bit of a correction to the market happening, it can be easier for the bloodstock agents to go back to the consignors that they've had success with in the past. That's something I found at the yearling sales this year. I also didn't have sire power. I brought nice horses to the sales but they were by horses that may not be the most fashionable. I'm a devil for doing that-buying the horse first and the page second. I had an Australia (GB) colt in Book 1 for example. I thought he was a belter – he is a first foal out of a black-type mare. But he only made 95,000gns and cost me €72,000 as a foal. I'd say if he was by something sexier, he'd have made a lot of money. When you are selling yearlings, sire power is a massive part of it.
You say that, but the one thing I took from Book 2 was the amount of different sires who had horses selling for 500,000gns or more. A colt by Territories (Ire), for example, made 750,000gns.
But Territories is a good sire. He's exactly the type of sire I'd like to buy a foal by. But you go and try to buy a nice Territories, it will cost you plenty of money. I'd buy one all day long. I got out this year but didn't make any money. You see, I'd be kind of old-fashioned in my ways. I don't really buy sprinters. I prefer to buy back-end middle-distance types and I don't mind putting horses in training either. If they didn't run at two for me, it wouldn't be the end of the world at all. The real money in this game is for those mile-plus horses and, if you have patience, it can be rewarding.
What was it about setting up your own consignment and pinhooking that appealed to you in the first place?
I'd no experience working on a farm at home or anything like that. My parents ran a pub in Carlow town and I just started working on a farm close to home and it just took off from there. I spent time in England, worked here at Goffs with Andrew Nolan in the property department because I actually studied auctioneering and valuations in college. But the first few horses I bought, I got lucky and had a few touches. It took off from there.
What touches did you get?
A few cheap foals I bought went on and made decent money as yearlings. I was giving three or four grand for foals and getting 16 and 17 grand for them as yearlings. I thought it was easy, but of course it wasn't. I loved trading horses from the start and I still do.
It's probably hard to buy those cheaper foals these days with the way the whole game has gone…
No, those days are finished. Gone. You can't do that any more. There's just no bottom to the market. I think the bottom of the market is completely gone.
It's so expensive to keep a horse in training that, with stagnant levels of prize-money, people probably don't want the fun horse any more…
Most of my luck has come from horses in training. We had a filly in training with Willie McCreery called Come September (Ire) (Roderic O'Connor {Ire}) and she won first time out at Gowran Park and got sold afterwards. Shortly after that, we had a horse called Laws Of Indices (Ire) (Power {GB}), who Ken Condon trained to win a Group 1 for us. It's a funny business model but, for me, I think it's the best business model there is.
Laws Of Indices | Goffs
It's the ultimate test when you put them in training…
It's the ultimate test and you might go through five, six or seven horses before you get a good one but, when you do, it's brilliant. That's my favourite part of the game, having horses in training. Everyone thinks I'm mad. I don't breeze horses. Any yearling I buy, I put them into training.
You're plucky. Every time I open up the calendar I see you down for owning bits and pieces of a new horse nearly every week!
I'm lucky in that I'm friendly with a few trainers. I was very lucky with Ken, Willie and I've a good few horses with John and George Murphy as well. They are top-class operators. Mark Fahey is another man I have a few horses with. He's a very shrewd man. He's probably still a bit underestimated actually.
Tell me a bit more about Laws Of Indices. That's some story…
Andrew Nolan and his wife Charlotte, Martin Walsh, Dermot Farrington and Viv Noone owned the horse with me. Charlotte was at the sales at Goffs one day and rang me to say she'd found one. I was working in England at the time and said that I'd take him no problem. I can't take any credit for finding him or anything like that. He won his maiden on his second start, went on to win the Railway Stakes, and then he went on to win the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat after that. We sold half of him to continue his career in Australia and he did well down there. He was the horse of a lifetime for me and got me going. Between him and Come September, they got me up and running. Now, I have gone through a good few of them since but I don't mind that because, when you do hit on one, you can get well paid. I love that you can buy a foal or a yearling for reasonable money in this game and, in a year's time, you don't know where you could be. You have a chance of making a lot of money for a relatively small investment and that's the bit I love about this game. You can dream.
You had some good touches in the ring last year…
Yes, George Murphy, Gary Dowling and myself sold a Galiway (GB) colt for 145,000gns at the Somerville Sale. We bought him for €27,000 as a foal. I'd a good result with a Saxon Warrior (Jpn) colt at the Orby this year as well. I gave €8,000 for him as a foal and got €50,000 as a yearling so that was decent going. But the Galiway was very special because it took place around the time of Gary's father's anniversary. There was a lot of emotion surrounding that and we were all delighted for Gary.
What yearlings did you buy to put into training this year?
I bought an Invincible Spirit (Ire) filly out of Gorane (Ire) (Dream Ahead) for 15,000gns and I thought she was good value. Gorane was quite a good filly for Henry de Bromhead and Clipper and I can remember her from my time spent down with Joe Foley at Ballyhane Stud. I bought into a Havana Grey (GB) as well and then there are a few yearlings who I didn't bring to the sales so there's five or six to look forward to there.
I didn't realise you worked at Ballyhane. You've crammed a lot in.
Michael and Ruth Foley, who ran the farm close to my home in Carlow, taught me a lot. Then Joe and Jane Foley were very good to me at Ballyhane as well. As I mentioned, Andrew Nolan was also good to me in Goffs. I used to work the yearling sales with Dermot Farrington and learned plenty doing that. He is a brilliant judge – one of the best in the game. When you go through some of his big-name purchases, they are actually quite cheap with respect to what they went on to achieve on the track. He's great fun to be around and was a great man to learn from. He looks at things differently to a lot of people and has huge success. That's one thing I learned from him, the ability to buy a good horse by sires who may have gone cold.
What drives you out of bed in the morning?
I just love horses and love working with them. But I suppose my favourite thing to do is go racing. The lads give me awful abuse but, I could go racing three or four days a week, especially in the summer when there's evening racing. I love it. I don't mind having a bet either. We've had a few touches at that down through the years as well. We backed a horse that Mark Fahey trained during Covid – 66s, 33s, those sort of prices. That was some day.
How did you get to know Mark? He's clearly a very good operator.
I was introduced to Mark through another good friend of mine, Richie Scahill. Richie had horses with Mark for years and had a lot of luck with him. Richie's father, Dessie, is obviously the legendary commentator, and he actually buys some foals with us every year. Dessie loves the game and it's great having him involved.
Legendary commentator Dessie Scahill | Racingfotos.com
You have a lot of clients and consign horses on behalf of a lot of breeders. How are the smaller breeders reacting to the recent sales and have many of those breeders shared whatever plans they might have for the future?
A lot of smaller breeders will be pulling back. But the way the thing has gone, there are probably 10 sires that you'd like to use, but they are not affordable to the smaller breeder. The rest of the sires are probably okay but they're not commercial so some breeders have a bit of a dilemma to face into. I have a few mares in partnership with friends but I just let them pick the sires. I'd be looking at it with the view of trying to produce a racehorse whereas they might be more commercially-minded. You'd probably go broke trying to do it my way as a breeder so that's why I let them decide the matings. There is a big difference between breeding a racehorse and a sales horse.
You've got a lot of friends in the industry. There are some great success stories of young people making a go of it, including yourself, in the bloodstock game.
It's a brilliant game. I'd be very close with George Murphy, who I already mentioned, and Jerry Horan as well. Actually, Jerry and I bought Inns Of Court during the summer off Tally-Ho Stud. We bought him on behalf of an Iranian client and we're not quite sure what we're going to do with him yet. We could stand him in France. I think he's an underrated sire and he's had a very good end to this season. Our client is very happy so hopefully he's something to look forward to.
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