John’s Letter

Dear Breeder,

2022 will go down as one of the most successful years in the long and storied history of Ballylinch Stud. It was a year in which every aspect of the farm enjoyed a stellar year, with the stallions, broodmares, yearling sales and the racing team all enjoying success at the highest levels.

On any stallion farm one of the most difficult but ultimately rewarding challenges is to develop a stallion who can break through to the elite level of international sires. At Ballylinch we are blessed to have two such sires in Lope de Vega and New Bay amongst a roster of only five.

Lope de Vega enjoyed another superb year on the track with Group winners on four different continents, four Group 1 winners, 27 Stakes winners and over 50 Stakes horses confirming his position as one of the world’s leading sires. His
yearlings sold for up to 1.8 million guineas in 2022.

New Bay whose first crop are only four this year, had three Group 1 winners this year with only a fraction of the number of runners of the other leading sires who achieved this. He is now covering top quality books of mares and we are confident that he will become an outstanding sire in the years to come.

Make Believe has already shown that he can get runners at the very highest level. His weakest crops are running at present but with bigger and better-quality crops to come, he will bounce right back and he represents great value in a proven sire for breeders in 2023.

Waldgeist who beat Enable and Sottsass in a vintage Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe will see his first crop reach the track in 2023.  A Group 1 winner as two-year-old himself he could well surprise observers with the level of precocity in his stock. He gets lovely athletic progeny with great minds, and we are eagerly looking forward to his runners next year.

This year Ballylinch will welcome its first homebred stallion for many decades in Bayside Boy. A top-class son of New Bay he showed himself to be a top two-year-old with his win in a high-quality renewal of the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and he developed into a leading miler as a three-year-old highlighted by his explosive turn of foot to beat Breeders Cup Mile winner Modern Games in the Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot. Raced in partnership with Teme Valley he is further confirmation of Richard Ryan’s great eye for a high quality yearling. Bayside Boy is already attracting lots of attention and he will be very well supported in his stud career with an exceptionally strong syndicate behind him.

Meanwhile the Ballylinch broodmare band had a great year on the track with Bayside Boy and Place du Carrousel flying the flag at Group1 level and Francesco Guardi proving to be one of the best in Australia.

The success of the Ballylinch bred horses on the track transferred to the sales ring with Ballylinch yearlings fetching up to 1.05 million guineas and ending up among the leading vendors at all the top yearling sales this year.

On the racing front, 2022 was certainly our most successful year to date highlighted by the Group 1 double for Bayside Boy and Bay Bridge on Champions Day at Ascot but ably backed up by Place du Carrousel in the Prix de l’Opera and by Surf Dancer and Francesco Guardi, both successful at Group 2 level in Australia and the highly promising Self Belief in the Trigo Stakes at Leopardstown. We would like to thank all our partners for the success we shared this year.

The success on many fronts points clearly to the excellent team of staff we have in all divisions of Ballylinch and I would like to thank them all for their continued commitment. I’m sure that you enjoy working with them as much as I do.
We are lucky to enjoy the unwavering support of John and Leslie Malone and their decision to buy Castlemartin Stud and to integrate it into Ballylinch was surely an inspired move. We hope to give them many more special days in the business in the future.

Finally, I would like to thank all of our clients for their support in 2022 and wish you all health, happiness, and success in 2023.

John O’Connor
Managing Director