Paul McCartan

You can keep your fashionistas, foodies, royal processions and Group 1 races. Give me the scenes that followed the success of Crystal Black (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes any day of the week instead.  Win, lose or draw, the Wear A Pink Ribbon Syndicate who own Crystal Black came to Ascot for a party. Boy did their rapidly progressive gelding provide them with something to celebrate and the scenes that followed his success for the father and son team of Gerry and Colin Keane will go...

Coolmore Stud's Mark Byrne has acknowledged that many breeders will be in two minds about covering their mares after what he described as one of the most "unusual" years of trade in 2023 but but encouraged supporters of the stud to retain the faith by saying "it's not always dark at five o'clock." Byrne was speaking during the Irish Stallion Trail where visitors to Coolmore got a chance to see newbies Paddington (GB), Little Big Bear (Ire) and The Antarctic (Ire). Parallels were drawn between the quandary facing breeders in...

Paul and Marie McCartan know a thing or two about Nando Parrado (GB), having bought him as a foal, raced him, and retained part-ownership of the son of Kodiac (GB) since his retirement to the Irish National Stud. They were, therefore, pleased to be able to welcome the G2 Coventry S. winner's first foal on Saturday at their Ballyphilip Stud.  The filly foal is a daughter of Cafetiere (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}), who was herself a winning juvenile over five furlongs and is a half-sister to G3 Prix du Bois winner...

It was 11 years ago that Xtension (Ire) (Xaar {GB}) became only the second group winner for his trainer Clive Cox when landing the G2 Veuve Clicquot Vintage S. under Adam Kirby. In the intervening years, Cox and Kirby have become a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the major sprint contests and often with horses bought relatively inexpensively by the trainer. Xtension was himself a €15,000 yearling purchase from his breeder Paul McCartan of Ballyphilip Stud, and he was later sold on as a 3-year-old to race in...

There was a piece of history made in the G2 Coventry S., as Clive Cox and Adam Kirby united to land the spoils with Nando Parrado (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) who at a stunning 150-1 is the longest-priced winner in the modern era at Royal Ascot. While his price was probably hugely inflated given that virtually every one of the 2-year-olds in this line-up was an unknown quantity in this irregular season, Marie McCartan's bay had not exactly shone when fifth on debut over this trip at Newmarket June 4. Always...

To breed three world champions would be considered by many a major achievement. To do so in a six-year period, even more so. But it is far rarer still to accomplish such a feat from 12 or 13 mares at any one time. That is something Paul and Marie McCartan can lay claim to after Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) topped the sprinters' division in the 2019 Longines World Racehorse rankings, following in the footsteps of fellow Ballyphilip Stud champions Harry Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel) and Tiggy Wiggy (Ire) (Kodiac...