Tally Ho horse makes history as sire of three Ascot winners

Above: Zodiac, which stands at Tally Ho stud at Lynn.

Eilís Ryan

The restrictions that keep crowds away from race meetings stopped Mullingar horse breeder Tony O’Callaghan from attending the recent race meeting at Ascot, but from home, he was able to watch as history was made.

At what is one of the world’s most prestigious race meetings, three winners were sired by the stallion Kodiac, which stand at O’Callaghan’s Tally Ho stud at Moyliscar.

“The Queen Mary, the Coventry Stakes and the Diamond Jubilee,” says Tony, listing the three group races in which the half-siblings triumphed.

Victory went the way of Campanelle in the Queen Mary Stakes, Nando Parrado in the Coventry Stakes and Hello Youmzain in the Diamond Jubilee.

“It was a phenomenal day,” said Tony.

The success of Campanellee was probably the sweetest of all for she was bred at Tally Ho, and left Mullingar just last October for Stonestreet Stables in Kentucky. Trained by Wesley A Ward, Campanelle was ridden to victory by Frankie Dettori.

Marie McCartan is the owner of the Coventry Stakes winner Nando Parrado, which is trained by CG Cox at Lambourn in the UK. Ranked a 150/1 outsider it was ridden by jockey Adam Kirby.

Diamond Jubilee winner Hello Youmzain, trained by Kevin Ryan at Thirsk in Yorkshire, is owned by French-based Haras d’Etreham and Cambridge Stud of New Zealand. The jockey was Kevin Stott.

Kodiac has proven a great find for Tally Ho: since 2017 the horse has held the world record for the number of 2-year-old winners from a single crop.

“He sired 63 individual winners,” says Tony, who bought the horse from John Dunlop 14 years ago.

Kodiac’s stud fee is set at €65,000, and his record means he is in demand: the effect of the Ascot success will become clearer in the early months of next year when the breeding season restarts.

“We get mares from Germany, France, England, Italy, the Netherlands, America every year,” says Tony, who keeps seven stallions at Tally Ho.

Of the seven, Kodiac is clearly he says, “the King”.

Welcome

While racing is still being held behind closed doors, Tony is very happy that the sport has at least resumed:

“I think it was great to get it back now; it’s absolutely wonderful,” he says, while pointing out that inevitably the lack of income from spectators is a challenge for the sector.

Tony believes that the ban on attendances should be lifted, as most people are now well enough educated on the risks, and thus are well capable of making up their own minds on whether to attend race meetings – and on what to do while at the meetings to reduce the risk of transmission or infection.

“I’d be in favour or letting people make up their own minds: if they want to go to a match or the races, let them go, and the people who are worried, let them stay at home.”

He points out that as long as people stay away from the bar, they should be able to keep themselves socially distanced.

Congratulations were extended to the O’Callaghan family by Cllr Andrew Duncan at the most recent meeting of Westmeath County Council.