Kilcarn Flame Still Blazing Brightly

Pat O'Kelly's Kilcarn Stud has been synonymous with the Goffs Orby Sale for several decades through sale-topping yearlings and high-achieving graduates. While Kilcarn Stud is missing from the index of consignors at next week's edition of the sale, the farm is still strongly represented via The Castlebridge Consignment, which is offering O'Kelly's yearlings on her behalf this year.

Staffing issues have led to the policy change this year but apart from the change of livery to the Castlebridge red and green, nothing else about the select Kilcarn draft of five yearlings will be different. Quality has always been the key at Kilcarn, where the broodmare band has rarely stretched to more than a dozen and consignor Bill Dwan is naturally proud to have been selected to prep and offer a draft of yearlings from such a revered farm.

“We are delighted to be consigning these yearlings on behalf of Miss O'Kelly's wonderful nursery,” Dwan said. “She has an exciting group of yearlings on offer at Goffs next week by proven, world-class stallions and from her wonderful dam lines that continue to produce top-class racehorses. With colts by Sea The Stars (Ire) and Kingman (GB), two fillies by Invincible Spirit (Ire) and a Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) full-sister to Banimpire (Ire), it is an elite bunch of horses and a fantastic addition to Castlebridge's already extensive and quality draft of yearlings at the Orby Sale.”

In a way it's a poignant departure for Kilcarn to contract out the prepping and selling of its yearlings and a situation that was slightly lamented by O'Kelly when the TDN spoke to her last week.

“We have never used a consignor before, we have always done it ourselves,” she explained. “The Lanney family, firstly Seamus and now his son Stuart, my current stud manager, have always handled it here but they couldn't get the help they needed this year so we had to make other arrangements.”

While Kilcarn is famed for nurturing a select few bloodlines over the last 40 years, it is ironic that its first yearling in the ring at Goffs this week is out of a mare added to the broodmare band less than two years ago. The Kingman (GB) colt, lot 287, is out of I Am Beautiful (Ire) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}), a stakes winner for Aidan O'Brien who was bought by Kilcarn carrying this colt at Tattersalls in December 2017 for 700,000gns. I Am Beautiful has a regal lineage coming from the family of Miesque (Nureyev), Tapestry (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Kingmambo, et al and she has a 2-year-old colt named Stalingrad (GB) (War Front) in training with Fozzy Stack which is ready to start.

Kilcarn is represented by consecutive lots when a filly (lot 390) by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) out of My Renee (Kris S) is followed into the ring by a Sea The Stars (Ire) colt (lot 391) of My Renee's daughter My Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). The Holy Roman Emperor filly is a full-sister to MGSW Banimpire (Ire), who famously went through the ring at Goffs as a broodmare for €2.3-million seven years ago. O'Kelly was also heartened to see Banimpire, who she bred and sold as a yearling at Goffs, listed among the index of mares in the catalogue as the dam of a Galileo (Ire) colt, lot 155, and appropriately enough offered by the Castlebridge Consigment. Meanwhile, the Sea The Stars colt is the second produce out of the multiple stakes placed My Spirit, herself a half-sister to Banimpire.

Kilcarn Stud's draft is completed by a pair of Invincible Spirit (Ire) fillies, the first of those being lot 432. The daughter of G3 Athasi S. winner Prima Luce (Ire) (Galileo {Ire})–whose stock have grossed over €1.2-million at the Orby Sale for Kilcarn in the last five years–is a full-sister to the stakes winner Emmaus (Ire) who is now in training in America with Irishman Conor Murphy. According to O'Kelly, the mare's 2-year-old filly Golden Dawn (Ire) (Golden Horn {GB}) is in pre-training and doing everything right. Kilcarn's final offering is lot 447, a half-sister to Group 2-winning juvenile Fighting Irish (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) out of the Pivotal (GB) mare Quixotic (GB). Explaining her regular use of the Irish National Stud's flagship stallion O'Kelly said, “I was on the board of the Irish National Stud at the time they bought Invincible Spirit so I put my money where my mouth was and it seems to have paid off.”

While Kilcarn Stud are no stranger to selling seven figure lots at the Orby, the most recent being the 2015 sale topper Tocco D'Amore (Ire) (Raven's Pass) who was knocked down to Moyglare Stud for €2-million, buyers can take heart in the fact that there is sometimes spectacular value available in their draft. This year's G1 Prix de Diane winner Channel (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}) is a perfect example, having been bought by Meridian International for just €18,000 at the 2017 Orby. While Love Magic (GB) (Dansili {GB}), the dam of Channel, has no yearling to sell this year she does have a Sea The Stars filly foal and is in foal to Saxon Warrior (Jpn), and one suspects when these are brought to the market they should fetch a bit more than their Classic-winning sibling.

“Channel has certainly outrun her purchase price so I imagine connections are quite happy,” O'Kelly said. “Obviously I'm still delighted as I have the mare and she is only 9-years-old so that is quite something.”

For decades Kilcarn Stud has been best known for the dynasty spawned by the mare Flame Of Tara (GB) (Artaius). She was the champion 3-year-old filly in Ireland in 1983 following wins in the Coronation S. and Pretty Polly S., but her track achievements were almost overshadowed by her prowess as a broodmare. She became the dam of Salsabil (GB) (Sadler's Wells) and Marju (Ire) (Last Tycoon {Ire}) along with five other stakes performers. The last of her black-type performers Spirit Of Tara (Ire) (Sadler's Well) is still at Kilcarn but at 25-years-of age has been pensioned from breeding. Spirit Of Tara has also left a lasting legacy being the dam of the above mentioned stakes-winning Tocco D'Amore, along with MGSW Echo Of Light (GB) (Dubai Millennium {GB}) and several other stakes performers. This line is currently being continued at Kilcarn by Spirit Of Tara's young daughter Dream Of Tara (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). The 6-year-old has a yearling colt by Zoffany (Ire) in the Sportsman's Sale (lot 658), a Dark Angel (Ire) colt foal and was covered earlier this year by Frankel (GB).

Pat O'Kelly took over the running of Kilcarn Stud following the death of her father Major Ned O'Kelly in 1986 and since then very little has changed regarding how stock is raised at the County Meath nursery. Nature is very much embraced and with some of the sizable paddocks sloping quite steeply downhill to the banks of the River Boyne, Kilcarn offers both natural and manmade drinking outlets. “They can drink from the river as it's never been fenced,” explained O'Kelly. “Our theory was if they happened to gallop down into the river they were more likely to get out unharmed if they hadn't crashed through a fence to get through in the first place. We've never had any mishaps so we're not going to fence it off now.”

She continued, “The land is very good here, we have cattle and the farm has never been overstocked. It's a very natural environment and they seem to thrive and develop good minds here. I think there is less prepping done nowadays with horses. When I was young I used to drive the yearlings in long reins around the farm and down to the river, for at least an hour. I think it was a help to them when they went into training as trainers found them well rounded and forward going. I guess things have changed now though, people are more inclined to do things in a hurry.”

As boutique farms go Kilcarn has an outstanding record and with significant investment made in some new, high-achieving bloodlines in the last five years, the roll call of Group 1 winners looks likely to grow further. O'Kelly's allegiance to Goffs is also significant and her support has played a pivotal role in the growth of the Orby Sale. While no doubt an exciting annual event for her, O'Kelly often has mixed feelings when saying goodbye to her proteges. “I don't like to see them go but I know it has to happen as you can't just keep them all,” she said.