There will be a Prix de L’Arc winner out of there sometime”, the Mount Juliet gardener said as we looked across the river Nore to the mare and young foal-dotted paddocks of Ballylinch Stud.

Once you cross the white bridge into this horse wonderworld of quality and care, you know why he said that. Managed by John O’Connor, this iconic stud is now in the ownership of Irish-American billionaire, John Malone and his wife Leslie, who also bought Tony O’Reilly’s former home, Castlemartin in Kildare.

Not surprisingly, the Malones fell in love with these two emerald gems and added the combined 2,000 acres to the, already massive, two million that they own throughout the U.S.

When I mentioned the Mount Juliet gardener’s prophecy to John O’Connor, who is now in his 30th year at Ballylinch, he was totally unfazed because around him he has a cohort of some 50 quality breeding mares by the likes of Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, Indian Ridge, Giant’s Causeway and Danehill. And, in the stallion paddocks he has seven impressive sires that are covering up to 800 dams a year.

He has seen some Classic winners foaled here and would not be surprised if a future one added the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

BALLYLINCH PHILOSOPHY

“Central to our philosophy here has always been to build a very strong group of mares and merge that with some good young stallions,”explained O’Connor. “We are a full spectrum business. Our philosophy is to do the best that can be done for the horses and that is the key to our success here”. But after spending some time in this wonderful place, one also gets the feeling that some of its inspiration and spirit lies deep under the turf of the main yard, where a huge limestone rock marks the grave of The Tetrarch.

The spotted wonder

This mighty horse who was known as ‘the spotted wonder’ was the very first great stallion to stand at Ballylinch 100 years ago for the McCalmont family, who owned this stud for over 70 years from 1914 until 1987.

This uniquely coloured, mighty runner had genes that could be traced all the way back to the thoroughbred foundation sire Byerely Turk.

He was unbeaten as a two-year-old and his influence on world racing lasts down to this very day. His genes can be found in the background of greats like Secretariat, Affirmed, Sea Bird II , Mill Reef and more recently in Dancing Brave, Sea The Stars, Frankel and Camelot.

The pride in all of this rich background was evident as stallion man, Stephen Fox and nominations manager, Mark Byrne showed me around the beautifully appointed stallion yard.

Shoulders forward, knees bent, arms pumping - Fox demonstrated the “power” of each sire as if he were bursting from the stalls or winning past the post. We saw dual Classic winner Lope De Vega, joint-European champion Dream Ahead, whose 2016 yearlings made up to 170,000gns.

We also saw the Maurice and Monty Regan supported Fascinating Rock, French Classic winner Lawman, unbeaten two-year-old Make Believe, Timeform 128-rated New Bay and dual purpose Beat Hollow who sired recent Punchestown Champion Hurdle winner, Wicklow Brave.

To my mind this superb stud is Ireland at its best and a jewel in the crown of Irish horse breeding.