Plying her trade

Plying: the daughter of Hard Spun and dam of the three-time Group 1 winner Alcohol Free

Martin Cooney of Jossestown Farm explains to Aisling Crowe how, from a short list of just two, he and partner Elaine Shaw ended up buying the dam of Alcohol Free, and how they have how come to the decision her to offer her at this month’s Goffs Breeding Stock Sale

RACING IS BUILT ON dreams, grand, modest and everything in between, but each and every single one is the rocket fuel that keeps the ship of dreams in orbit.

When Martin Cooney of Jossestown Farm walked into the Goffs sales complex in November 2018, he and his partner Elaine Shaw had studied the catalogue for the company’s November Breeding Stock Sale in detail, and were of the view that they should select mares they felt offered them the best opportunity of a quick return on their investment.

With the research done and the list completed Cooney and Shaw, who works at Kiltinan Castle Stud, where she is heavily involved in foaling the mares, honed-in on two mares who fulfilled the necessary criteria.

The first mare exceeded their budget so they were left with a single shot at buying the young, in-foal mare with the potential they had come to Goffs with the intention of purchasing. Their chosen one was the then eight-year-old Plying, a daughter of Hard Spun who had won twice at three in France for Henri-Alex Pantall and Sheikh Mohammed.

The plan came to fruition, she was knocked down to Jossestown Farm at €21,000 from the draft of Jockey Hall Stud; the duo happy with their work.

Out of the Fairy King mare Nasaieb, who was third in the Listed National Stakes at two for Clive Brittain, Plying may not have been a star on the track but she has exceeded all expectations as a broodmare.

So what was it that Cooney saw in the mare, who had produced just one runner at the time of the 2018 sale?

“She had a great head on her and she had a grand action, with a deep girth and she was in-foal to Starspangledbanner,” Cooney explains of the logic and reasoning that guided their selection of Plying, adding: “The sire was going quite well at the time and the reasoning behind our decision was that, if the foal was any way good looking, then we would make back the price of the mare with a bit of luck the following year.”

His experience with blue-chip bloodstock began long before he bought Plying – Cooney started out his working life at Kiltinan Castle, the farm from which he eventually acquired his other broodmare Danehill Dreamer, a half-sister to the Group 1 winners Summoner and Compton Admiral and to the dam of Group 1 winner The Fugue.

All his family has had a stint working in stud farms, away from the family farm where his father also bred NH horses and where Cooney inherited his love of horses. Cooney went on to work in the racing side of the business, riding his first winner between the flags for Enda Bolger.

“I spent a couple of years down there with Enda and that was a good education,” he smiles, recalling his formative experiences in the industry. “I spent a couple of years with Harry Fry in England, as well, and I worked for Mouse Morris here, too.”

His time at Fry’s Dorset yard coincided with that of the Champion Hurdler Rock On Ruby, who hails from a similar area of Tipperary as Cooney. It’s a time he remembers with fondness, but the land and farm called him home, as it has done for generations of Irish people.

“I now work with PJ Colleville, near Rosegreen, breaking Flat and NH horses, and he is a top horseman and I have learned so much from him,” he adds.

This month Cooney and Plying will return to Goffs in a very different position than the one they were in when the Hard Spun mare boarded the box from Naas to Jossestown Farm, near Fethard in Tipperary three years’ ago.

Plying’s No Nay Never foal, who was sold at Goffs’ two days before her dam, is now the triple Group 1 winner Alcohol Free.

It is quite the pedigree transformation.

The first two races that have produced this metamorphosis are eloquently recalled by Cooney.

Plying had a Gleneagles filly foal this year and is carrying a filly by Lope De Vega. Her 2019 foal is called Hooked On You, and is in training with Karl Burke

“That first moment that was just unbelievable. I’m not joking, the first time round I nearly felt like throwing the telly through the window and the second time was the same thing,” he remarks of Alcohol Free’s victories in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and Coronation Stakes for trainer Andrew Balding, owner Jeff Smith and jockey Oisin Murphy.

“You’re just waiting for the race to come, everyone’s anxious and you’re just watching it and wanting it be over. Suddenly you see that she is going to win, I can’t explain the feeling.

“I don’t know but it’s probably like when you’re at an All-Ireland final and Tipp is winning, there’s just that adrenaline rush.”

After that Cheveley Park victory in 2020 there was the initial fleeting consideration of whether Plying should be sold; putative offers were drifting in the ether. A conversation with Balding convinced Cooney that Alcohol Free was no one-hit wonder and that more glory awaited the No Nay Never filly this year if her luck held, so Cooney and Shaw made the decision to hold on to their valuable asset by then in-foal to Gleneagles.

It’s not because of what she has done, but it’s ‘her’ at home; she’s there nearly three years now and you’re not just going to forget about her…

THAT DECISION has been rewarded with the 2021 threeyear-old Group 1 victories for Alcohol Free – after the Coronation Stakes she went on to defeat the 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Poetic Flare in the Sussex Stakes.

Aside from the Group 1 success, there has been further movement on the pedigree page since that purchase by Cooney in 2018.

Plying’s 2016 Camelot colt was named Alexander James and is now the Listed Prix Le Fabuleux winner.

And what of the Starspangledbanner foal?

She was bought for 130,000gns at last year’s Tattersalls December Yearling Sale by Creighton Schwartz Bloodstock, fulfilling those initial hopes harboured by Cooney when purchasing Plying.

Now named Hooked On You she is in training Karl Burke for John and Jess Dance. She has run twice and finished third in a novice fillies’ race at Kempton last time out.

Plying has also moved forward in the covering shed – she is carrying a daughter of the top-class international sire Lope De Vega, while this year’s Gleneagles halfsister to the triple Group 1 winner has successfully been weaned off her dam and is at Jossestown Farm.

But owning the young dam of a triple Group 1 winner and a Listed winner when you have a business to develop and a future to build creates its own dilemma and it resides in the harsh space where the romance of the dream and the pragmatism of the business collide.

Alcohol Free

Cooney is developing the equine element of Jossestown Farm where Plying currently lives with Danehill Dreamer, the only two mares that he currently owns. A sheep and suckler cattle enterprise, along with a NH pinhooking operation, he is expanding with a new barn being built alongside all the necessary facilities that will allow him to operate the boarding, foaling and consigning business which he is developing.

Releasing the equity in Plying would enable him to create the business and farm that he aspires to.

“I have only two Flat mares at the moment and I have a couple of boarders already, but I hope to increase those numbers and offer foaling facilities, as well as sales consigning for clients,” he outlines. “It has been a slow process, but it is finally coming around.

“I think there might be an opening in the locality for the foaling element and if people see that you are doing things properly, they will support you,” is his assessment.

Making the decision to offer Plying for sale at Goffs was a difficult one and the days and weeks of agonising which surely preceded it are audible when he speaks of the choice he wrestled with.

He is honest enough to allow a glimpse of those conflicting emotions and thoughts, which were finally resolved by the decision to put the mare on the market.

“I would love to keep Plying, but what she is worth would do a lot more for me in life, and she’s too valuable to probably be sitting in my field,” he confides.

It is a bittersweet choice.

“There’s a happy side to it, you’re absolutely thrilled that she has bred a Group 1 winner and a Listed winner from five foals, but the other side of it is sad because you’re selling her.

“You’re obviously hoping she makes as much as she can but it’s hard to see her go, you do grow attached to them. It’s not because of what she has done, but it’s ‘her’ at home; she’s there nearly three years now and you’re not just going to forget about her…”

Cooney has complete belief in the mare. Right from the moment he bought her he had a conviction that she was going to be a success and that faith remains unshakable.

Whoever emerges successful from the bidding war that will erupt at Goffs will purchase a young mare, already proven at the highest level, by an exciting broodmare sire, and with the potential to produce further stars, of that he is certain.