Soldier On Ballyhane Tour Of Duty

On a typically busy day last week at Ballyhane Stud, Joe Foley was asked by a visitor, “What do you actually do?”

It's a good question, and one which it would be hard for the master of Ballyhane to answer definitively. That's not because he's idle, but because there are few facets of Irish breeding and racing in which Foley is not actively involved.

On that particular day he had just delivered 100 questions—some of them fiendishly difficult—for the popular quiz named in memory of his friend Mark O'Hanlon and staged across the road at his 'local', the Lord Bagenal Hotel in Leighlinbridge. That same evening he presided over the launch of a valuable new race at Naas, the €200,000 Ballyhane S., which is to be run in association with the Irish EBF, of which he is vice president. Before that he sat down for a grilling for a TDN interview in between greeting breeders arriving to the stud with mares for his four stallions.

The stud's longer-term residents Dandy Man (Ire) (Mozart {Ire}), Elzaam (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) and Prince Of Lir (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) have been joined this season by Soldier's Call (GB), one of four stallion sons of Showcasing (GB) and a terrific flag-bearer for the previous two seasons for Steve Parkin's burgeoning string of horses running in the name of his business Clipper Logistics.

Though the young stallion was bred in Wales by Llety Farms, for the Foleys, Soldier's Call's arrival at the stallion yard marks something of a homecoming. Bought as a yearling by Foley for 85,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, he was then broken in and pre-trained at Ballyhane by his wife Jane, who is also a trainer in her own right.

“I remember seeing him in Book 2. He was in on Wednesday morning, early, and I had seen him the day before,” Foley recalls. “He was being sold by David Hodge of Llety Farms, a very good breeder. I loved him the first time I saw him and the next morning Federico [Barberini] and I saw him and we absolutely adored him.”

Soldier's Call's British-bred dam Dijarvo, a daughter of Iceman (GB), had won the Listed Prix la Fleche at Maisons-Laffitte before being sold on to race in America, where she was later bought by Hodge and repatriated through agent Chad Schumer. Dijarvo produced just four foals—with Soldier's Call being second in line—before she died in 2018 at the age of nine. For Foley, much of the appeal in buying her Showcasing yearling was not only because he was by a stallion whose profile was rising swiftly on the back of some impressive progeny performances, but also because he was hewn from a consistently fast damline.

He says, “When I saw him the first time I remember studying his pedigree that night. His great great grandam was Abeer (GB), a very fast filly for Juddmonte, who won the Flying Childers like he did four generations later. His third dam was equally fast and his second dam was an interesting filly. I think she was born here [at Ballyhane] and she was extremely impressive in her maiden. She started second favourite for the Molecomb and then got injured in it and never ran again. And importantly [Soldier's Call's] dam was a fast filly and I love stallion prospects by good sires, obviously, but I think it's important that they are out of good race mares.”

In a September 2017 feature for Thoroughbred Owner Breeder magazine, Steve Parkin described Foley as “the closest thing to a racing genius”. He is unlikely to have revised his opinion since then, particularly as only a month later, the then-unnamed Soldier's Call, bought at a snip of what it would cost to secure a 'readymade' stallion prospect, was on his way back to Ballyhane to come under the experienced eye of Jane Foley.

“We were concentrating on buying fillies prior to that year to help build up Steve's broodmare band at Branton Court. That was the first year that we started buying colts with the long shot of trying to get a stallion, so to get Soldier's Call in the first year, we were very fortunate,” Foley says with some understatement.

“He was a nice colt and settled in with the rest of them and started pre-training with my wife Jane and her team. He was an innocuous sort of a horse, very good-looking, but he didn't do anything dramatic. He did his work very easily and was a very calm-tempered horse. He always looked like he had potential but I remember Jane telling me one morning around March time that this lad was pretty special.”

Soldier's Call joined Archie Watson's fast-rising team the following month and it wasn't long before the trainer rang Foley to offer a similar opinion. By mid-May, the colt was on the racecourse, finishing second to odds-on favourite Glory Fighter (GB) on debut before breaking his maiden at Haydock on his next start. From there, it was straight to Royal Ascot.

“A Royal Ascot winner had always been an ambition of both mine and Steve's, so for Soldier's Call to win the Windsor Castle was a special moment. Notwithstanding what he did after that, it was a big deal to us that we had our first Royal Ascot winner that Saturday,” Foley says.

“Archie had an ambitious campaign for him. Goodwood didn't suit him so Archie was keen to go back to a level track at Chantilly, which was the [G3] Prix d'Arenberg. He was very keen to back him up in the Flying Childers, which came quite soon after that. We were a little bit reticent but Archie was adamant and he was right, because he was ultra-impressive that day and won in a very fast time.”

With just less than a fortnight between his Group 3 and Group 2 victories, the colt was on his travels again three weeks later, back to France for his first attempt at a Group 1 and against older rivals, on Arc weekend. Just a head and a short-head separated the first three home in the Prix de l'Abbaye, with Soldier's Call taking third behind Mabs Cross (GB) and Gold Vibe (Ire).

Foley says, “We went for the Abbaye against the older horses and in my opinion he was quite unfortunate not to win, then we went to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile with him, but it was easy to do it with the colt. He's such a relaxed horse and he put on weight between his races, so if ever you were going to do it and give a 2-year-old a hard season, he was it.”

For many colts these days, that would have perhaps been the end of his racing days. Soldier's Call's evident talent, particularly his speed and precocity, meant he was guaranteed a berth at stud. But he returned at three and, though winless, he posted some worthy placed efforts behind seasoned, top-class sprinters, notably when third to Blue Point (Ire) in the King's Stand S. and runner-up to Battaash (Ire) in his track record-breaking Nunthorpe romp.

“A lot of people expected to retire him as a 2-year-old,” Foley says. “I suppose if he'd won the Abbaye we might have considered it more, but Steve's a racing fan. He loves racing horses and that's what this game is all about.”

For Soldier's Call, the game now is about something rather different, but he appears to retain every bit of his youthful zip as he charges out of his box to the covering shed in the early weeks of the covering season.

“It was very cool when he came back here,” Foley remembers with a smile. “All the riders came to welcome him back and I think everyone was very proud that in our first year of attempting to get a stallion we landed on Soldier's Call. He was such a well-liked individual here as a yearling and 2-year-old, so we were delighted to get him back. It's like he's come home.”

Among his first book of mares there will be strong support from Steve Parkin's own broodmare band. Fairy Falcon (GB), a Sepoy (Aus) half-sister to Group 1-winning sprinters Tangerine Trees (GB) (Mind Games {GB}) and Alpha Delphini (GB) (Captain Gerrard {Ire}) is one of those on his list, along with listed winners Gorane (Ire) (Dream Ahead) and Festoso (Ire) (Diesis). The latter was also second in the G2 Cherry Hinton S. and her offspring include the juvenile listed winner Festive Star (GB), one of the leading lights to date from the first crop of Golden Horn (GB).

While there is a hiatus now before the judges start to pass their verdicts on Soldier's Call's offspring, there is still plenty to keep the team at Ballyhane occupied. The G2 Norfolk S. winner Prince Of Lir, a son of Kodiac (GB), will be represented by his first runners this season. Meanwhile while the stud's flagship stallion Dandy Man has plenty of prospects to keep his name in lights around the world this year, including the Dubai-bound Kong Kong-based sprinter Big Time Baby (Ire), California-based multiple graded stakes winner River Boyne (Ire), and King Power Racing's promising 97-rated 3-year-old Lampang (Ire).

“Dandy Man's popularity goes from strength to strength,” says Foley. “He's also by a good stallion in Mozart and is out of a very fast filly, Lady Alexander, who won the Molecomb. He had some very good 3-year-olds last year, like Lady Kaya (Ire), but his 2-year-olds were a strong bunch: he had 34 winners, and five stakes horses.”

The stud will also extend its support of Irish racing this season through its sponsorship, along with the Irish EBF, of the six-furlong Ballyhane S. for 2-year-olds on Aug. 3 at Naas racecourse. The €200,000 race, which closes for entries on Wednesday, Feb. 26, is open to EBF-eligible juveniles by sires whose median auction price is €75,000 or less.

“We're always looking to invest the Irish EBF's money to benefit the racing programme but also to enhance the market,” explains Foley, who is vice chairman to John O'Connor. “Two or three years ago we started an auction series which was sponsored by Foran and has been very successful, and this coming season we are putting a lot of money into median races. I always liked the idea of having a big jackpot and high-profile race for Ireland, such as the Magic Millions in Australia or the Weatherbys Super Sprint in Britain, so we started building the race which has become the Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes. We got the template of it together and once we had the Irish EBF's approval of it, and HRI's approval, I thought I'd put my own money where my mouth is and sponsor it.”

Apart from the guaranteed minimum of €120,000 to the winner, Foley has thrown in a €50,000 bonus to the winning owner if the winner happens to be by a Ballyhane stallion.

Foley adds, “It's a huge pot for owners and trainers to target, and the bonus for a Ballyhane-sired winner is our way of rewarding supporters of our stallions.”