I followed J’y Vole with interest for some time, because, like the Cheltenham Gold Cup and dual King George VI Chase winner LONG RUN, she was a relative of our mare Full of Fruit. I was delighted by her successful racing career, and was then intrigued when she was purchased by my friend Paul Murphy for €120,000 – a very reasonable figure (for those that can afford it) for a Grade 1 winning mare with a very good pedigree.
I first met Paul at one of the Cheltenham sales in which the auction was held over dinner. He too was a client of Ballincurrig House Stud and we were seated at the same table. The conversation swiftly revealed that we were both of an analytical mindset that utilised the Racing Post Ratings of progeny to assess the ability of NH sires, also being fellow believers in the premise that the best racemares are likely to be the best broodmares. (Paul had considerable success in utilising this hypothesis with his mare Carole’s Crusader, purchased after he watched her race successfully and subsequently dam of the high-class siblings Mad Max, Carole’s Spirit and Carole’s Legacy.)
However, although I have never regarded myself as a particularly patient person, I do try not to take decisions before I have to; and I recognise that breeding is a long-term game and hasty decisions might be bad ones. In contrast, once Paul has formed a view he is likely to act on it swiftly. This underpinned a very successful business career – and it also led to me becoming the owner of J’y Vole.
For J’y Vole’s first two foals were disappointing, to say the very least. The first, by Flying Legend, a stallion Paul purchased on the basis of strong RPR statistics from his early runners (the first time we met I had identified the same results but was concerned that they had come from a rather small sample), was undeniably moderate; the second, by Shirocco, appeared certifiably insane, running all over the track on his two outings.
Accordingly, Paul lost faith in the mare, even though J’y Vole herself was neither moderate nor insane. He blamed himself for a covering by Sholokhov (a stallion in whom he had lost confidence because of wind issues) that produced her 2017 colt foal; but in 2018 sent her to Westerner and 2019 to Yeats, stallions that both Paul’s and my analyses suggested were very good ones – and both good matches for J’y Vole on conformation.
At one stage during a conversation in 2018 Paul announced that he was ‘going to shoot’ J’y Vole, before showing me a video of a particularly unhinged racing performance from her Shirocco gelding. He was, of course, joking, as he is far too kindly and humane a person to do such a thing; but I suggested that, if he ever felt that way more seriously, he might instead give her to me since I still believed in her.
In late 2019 he called out of the blue to ask if I still wanted J’y Vole as he still didn’t think much of her future as a broodmare. I still did, so I swiftly said ‘thank you very much’. The agreement was that J’y Vole would be moved to Shade Oak from Ballincurrig to foal, and immediately after foaling the mare would become mine. At various times I tried to induce Paul to sell me the Yeats foal that J’y Vole was carrying, but these offers were rejected.
I rather wish they hadn’t, though, because in due course she produced a smashing colt foal who brought €26,000 as a foal. Ultimately, however, this foal proved far more important than that, redeeming mum’s reputation when, named ‘Banter At The Bar’, he was an impressive winner of a 4YO Maiden Pointt-to-Point in Ireland and was privately sold for what was rumoured to be a multi-hundred euro sum.
However, there is a problem with J’y Vole in that she suffered from severe colic early in her breeding career and required major surgery; and in Summer 2020 there were definite signs of intestinal discomfort. J’y Vole had put a great deal into her foal but she herself looked poor in condition, The ‘cure’ was to treat the colic and then keep her out at grass 24 hours a day (barring severe storms), weaning the foal relatively early to give her the chance to recover condition before her next foal was due.
That foal would be important to me, since internal scarring from the colic surgery meant that to an extent J’y Vole might be on borrowed time, since colic could easily recur, and I very much wanted a filly from her to race and breed from. The Shade Oak veterinarian was concerned about covering her at all, since penetration by a stallion might risk internal rupture of the scar tissue and thus internal bleeding. However, the mare had been covered and foaled successfully several times since her colic surgery – and a thoroughbred mare that can’t be covered cannot really be regarded as much of a broodmare prospect.
I therefore decided that we should go ahead but asked Mr Hockenhull’s advice on which of the two of his stallions I was considering had the smaller penis and / or less vigorous approach to lovemaking. The answer was that Dartmouth fitted the bill on both counts. So he became the sire of J’y Vole’s 2021 foal, which turned out to be a good-looking colt sold to John Bleahen on a private visit to Shade Oak.
(N.B. This was a memorable occasion in which two Bleahen brothers and two sons walked through fields of foals, pulled out the ones they liked the look of and then looked suitably disappointed at the prices mentioned for the ones they wanted to purchase. Since the prices had been suitably increased in anticipation of this response, negotiation usually produced an outcome satisfactory to both parties.)
Should the 2021 foal prove a successful racehorse (as I hope he will, having been sold for €85,000 to Gordon Elliott as a 3YO), and in due course win an award at the TBA NH Celebration Dinner, I shall be able to announce proudly that the mating was arrived at, not only because Dartmouth was a good, tough racehorse able to put strength and power into a foal from the rangy J’y Vole, but also because the size of his penis meant he wouldn’t hurt her too much.
A repeat mating in 2021 produced a 2022 filly that we intend to keep to race ourselves, whilst her 2023 full-sister was sold to David Futter, so hopefully I shall have three shots at making this speech.
P.S. Knowing Paul’s disillusionment with J’y Vole I stayed in touch with plans for her 2019 Westerner filly, who was kept at Ballincurrig and who had impressed me on a visit there in the September of her foal year. When in Spring 2021 Michael Moore advised me that Paul had decided to sell her, for what seemed a very reasonable price, I stepped in quickly to purchase her. I used a most appropriate song title as her name, ‘Comeflywithme’, since in French ‘J’y Vole’ meams ‘I’m flying there’. (This is why I wanted to call J’y Vole’s 2022 Dartmouth filly ‘Leavingonajetplane’).
Comeflywithme was briefly in pre-training but was too backward to race, so I decided to breed from her and then put her into training after she had weaned the foal. Unfortunately, she lost that foal in utero and by the time the second foal appeared, this being a very promising 2024 filly by Logician, it was rather too late to resume the mare’s racing career – but I hope she will fulfil my expectations as a broodmare.
For details of the Eskdale breeding records of J’Y Vole and Comeflywithme, click on Broodmares