No notion for Evergreen Stud as Land Rover bumper winners are back for more | Bloodstock News
Goff
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By Aisling Crowe
Lockdowns have brought many changes to everyone’s life, but while many people were busy in their forced free time learning a foreign language or baking mountains of banana bread, Evergreen Stud’s Micheal Conaghan was learning the intricacies of coffee making.
The 26-year-old from Bruff in County Limerick faced, like so many, the loss of his income as the specter of Covid haunted the land.
With sales uncertain and a market for the horses he bred and purchased, the enterprising breeder and shipper purchased an old horse trailer and, along with his girlfriend Elizabeth Hayden and a friend , opened a cafe along the banks of the Royal Canal at Moyvalley in Kildare.
“I’m a self-taught barista,” he laughs. “I got the trailer and we outfitted it, the girls did the baking, I wouldn’t be very good at that, so I just made the coffee and we set up near Fureys pub on the canal walk.”
In addition to great coffee and delicious pastries, the business needed a catchy name and the trio settled on Absolute Notions. If this sounds familiar and you’ve never wandered along the banks of the Royal Canal, that’s because it’s also the name of the winner of this year’s Conaghan-owned Goffs Land Rover Bumper.
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Two days after making their winning debut in the Punchestown race and winning Conaghan the sellers’ prize of a Land Rover Defender, Absolute Notions returned to the Punchestown winner’s paddock for the Goffs sale and exited the most expensive horse ever sold at the boutique event, fetching €370,000 for Mags O’Toole.
It was double vindication of Conaghan’s decision to send him on training with Gordon Elliott when he failed to meet their valuation at the 2021 Land Rover sale.
“We thought he was a good horse and he had talent, but you don’t really know what they can do until they race,” he said. “Going out and winning like that in his debut was something else.
“We couldn’t believe how much he was earning, it still doesn’t seem real. Hopefully he keeps going and is successful for Brian Acheson now.”
Conaghan’s family background is in breeding; his grandfather Michael scored a notable double at Cheltenham in January when his Year 1 winners Paisley Park and Chantry House struck in Year 2 contests within 35 minutes of each other.
Her grandson remembers: “It was an incredible day, we couldn’t write this kind of thing. It’s been an amazing year for our family.
Between his grandfather, his father and himself, they own five mares, three National Hunt and two for Flat, but the youngest of the trio loves pinhooking and that’s how he came across Absolute Notions, a foal bought for €25,000 at sales.
“I bought him as a colt from Brian and Bronagh Lawler,” he says. “I thought he was a very good first foal from a well-related mare, a beneficial half-sister to a Grade 1 winner and a Grade 2 winner, and he was by Milan.”
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While his family and Evergreen Stud roots are in Limerick, Conaghan currently rents a yard near Carberry in Kildare as his girlfriend is from Maynooth, and the location suits the Irish National Stud breeding course graduate down to the ground.
His education in the industry did not begin, or end, with his fate on the esteemed course. During the transition year in high school, he attended the racing academy, continuing to work in the backyard of the late great Dessie Hughes, before returning to school for the Leaving Cert cycle and riding for coaches Enda Bolger and John Gleeson.
“After school I worked in one of the JP’s [McManus] studs for a bit [Islanmore]then worked for the O’Callaghans at Yeomanstown Stud, spent a year in America with Cal Lynch, who is based in Laurel Park, Maryland, and came back to school with Con Marnane and John Foley at Ballyvolane Stud,” is his summary of an impressive curriculum vitae.
Although his family is best known for their success in the national hunting sphere, the young Conaghan is not limited to any element.
His pragmatic explanation is, “I like having something to sell at different times of the year, because that way you’re not dependent on just one check.”
Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
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Chantry House: Evergreen Stud sells Western filly out of her half-sister
Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)