By Kelsey Riley
James and Lisa Kelly's pilot project at the 2018 Tattersalls Ascot yearling sale could hardly have worked out better. The couple offered two yearling fillies through their Kildare-based Linacre House Stud, with both going on to be stakes-winning 2-year-olds: Flaming Princess (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}) and Flippa The Strippa (Ire) (Outstrip {GB}). The Kellys return to the Ascot yearling sale-this season staged in Newmarket on Sept. 7-for the second time this year with three yearlings, including a full-sister to Flaming Princess.
While Linacre House's Tattersalls Ascot debut looks on paper to have been a flawless performance, it wasn't without its hiccups and anxious moments.
“When we offered Flaming Princess, I spoke to three or four trainers beforehand and we guaranteed them that we felt she was a black-type filly,” James Kelly recalled. “Believe it or not, when she left her box going up to the sales ring she stood on a stone and she cracked her heel. So she was actually lame in the pre-parade ring and lame in the ring, so we didn't get a bid on her. So what do you do? We decided to breeze her.”
Flaming Princess was led out at £20,000 with Dunsany Stables's Daniel Benson's name on the ticket, and went out to make £60,000 at the following spring's Tattersalls Ascot Breeze-Up Sale from Cool Silk Partnership. She broke her maiden at first asking on June 5 for trainer Richard Fahey and three starts later took Deauville's Listed Prix Cavalassur before placing in the G3 Prix d'Arenberg. Flaming Princess was bought by INS Racing through BBA Ireland for 200,000gns at last year's Tattersalls December Mares Sale. Ten days earlier, the Kellys and their partners had sold Flaming Princess's dam Qatar Princess (Ire) (Marju {Ire}) for €330,000 at Goffs November to Diane Nagle, having spent 100,000gns on her three years prior.
The Kellys have owned and managed Linacre House Stud for 25 years, but only in the last five years have they taken on investors in their mares. They were joined in Qatar Princess-a placed half-sister to multiple group winner Hawksmoor (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}) and G2 Royal Lodge S. and recent G3 Desmond S. winner Royal Dornoch (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire})–by six friends diving into horse ownership for the first time.
“Qatar Princess is a mare that my wife and I owned the majority of, and we had six pals involved in a quarter of her,” Kelly said. “The six pals had never invested in a Thoroughbred in their life before and they had bought into her with us when we bought her at the December sales. They got to go to a yearling sale, a breeze-up sale, they bred a stakes winner, they got to go to Royal Ascot when she ran in the Queen Mary; they were all there the day she sold and they got an enormous buzz out of that. When I'm investing my money, and more importantly other peoples' money, I like to give them a return.”
Kelly stressed that the Linacre House Stud business model is different from most in that it doesn't charge commission or fees to investors; the agreement is a shared upside where investors are hopefully profitable and the Kellys have more capital to focus on quality and spread the risks farther.
“If we buy a mare for 100,000 at a sale today, my wife and myself will keep 60% of it and then we'll offer investors or partners maybe 10% or 20% shares or whatever value they want,” Kelly explained. “But they pay the sales company directly; we don't charge them commission or expenses on the purchase. They enter into a joint venture with us. They get our expertise for nothing and the only upside we have is if they make money-ie, if we sell foals out of the mares that make money. Our upside is their upside. When we sell at sales we don't charge our partners commission because again, we're trusting our own expertise and our judgement that we're going to make enough money from our share of the mare.
“We started with about half a dozen people investing with us initially and they've all grown exponentially. We have a long list of people investing with us now. We're a small business and we try to concentrate on quality animals. If we can get in five or six different investors it means that we can have a few extra bids, we can spread our equity, we can buy an extra five mares with our partners. It means that we can grow our portfolio and also increase the chances of ourselves making money producing black-type horses down the line.”
The Linacre House model operates on a five-year turnaround on mares, and Kelly said he adds six to eight fillies to the roster each year. He said pedigree is paramount.
“A mare has to have pedigree,” he said. “I would forgive a broodmare sire; I'll often buy an unfashionable broodmare sire but a mare has to have depth of pedigree. I love to buy a filly from a good, deep family. If I really love a family I'll forgive a missing generation or two to get into it. They must be exceptionally athletic and they must have a bit of quality.
“Our model is based on selling foals, and if you go to a sale and you don't have an athletic foal, even if they come to your box you won't get a second look. But if you don't have a pedigree they won't come to your box to look at your foal full-stop.”
“Every year I'd buy six to eight fillies for our syndicates, but to buy those six or eight mares I promise you I'd look at six, seven, eight-hundred mares,” Kelly added. “Our investors go around and look with me and my wife looks with me; we do an enormous amount of work and we're exceptionally strict on our criteria. But it's been a fantastic learning curve. The interest we've got and the interest other partners have shown in the business the last five years has really re-invigorated our enthusiasm for the business; to see the passion other people have and the enjoyment they can get out of the things we're doing for them and with them.”
After a hiatus in 2019, Linacre House Stud returns to the Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale this week with what Kelly described as “quite possibly the nicest yearling filly we've ever produced on our farm” in Flaming Princess's full-sister (lot 116).
“Very importantly for us, the sire Gutaifan has just had a Group 2 winner in Deauville [Fev Rover in the G2 Prix Calvados],” Kelly said. “He had 29 individual 2-year-old winners last year and he's had more stakes-winning 2-year-olds this year than Night Of Thunder, Showcasing, Kingman; a lot of seriously sexy sires. He's a very underrated sire and a sire that we as breeders have tremendous faith in. This filly is as athletic a filly as I've ever prepped myself. She's the real deal, we think.”
Like Gutaifan, the Kellys have also kept the faith in Outstrip, the sire of who gave them Flippa the Strippa. They offer a colt from his third crop (lot 20) who is out of a placed half-sister to Group 3-winning and multiple Group 1-placed sprinter Spectre (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}).
“I think Outstrip is flying under the radar as a sire,” Kelly said. “He's had a Group 2 winner this year and we bred a stakes-winning 2-year-old by him last year. This is a colt who is going to take a little bit of time. The dam is a half-sister to Spectre who is a Group 1-performing filly and her half-brother Mambo Nights has won his last three [prior to finishing fifth in York's Melrose H. on Aug. 22].”
Linacre House's first-crop Cotai Glory colt (lot 243) has enjoyed some significant updates this season courtesy of his dam, Curry (Ire) (Acclamation {GB})'s, half-sister Terebellum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) who, in addition to winning last year's G2 Prix de la Nonette, took the G2 Dahlia S. on seasonal debut on June 6 before missing by a head in the G1 Queen Anne S. and a half-length in the G1 Falmouth S.
“What he has going for him is that he's a son of a first-crop sire in Cotai Glory who is a son of Exceed and Excel, who does exceptionally well as a sire of sires,” Kelly said. “Tally-Ho have an amazing record of producing champion first-crop sires. More importantly, he is out of a mare called Curry, whose half-sister Terebellum has won a Group 2 this year and has been Group 1-placed twice in three starts. I think she's a Group 1 winner in waiting. He's a very athletic horse who gives whoever is going to buy him a chance of early action next year.”
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