At this time of year, it means that McKeever’s business is focused on the Southern Hemisphere. Having been on the Gold Coast for the first Magic Millions sale of 2019, followed by the Inglis Classic Sale and a debut trip to Magic Millions’ Perth auction house, the agent with more airmiles than most is now on his second Australian trip of the year for the Premier Yearling Sale. A return to Sydney at Easter beckons.
“I just love coming here,” says McKeever from Melbourne. “Yes, the travelling is hard work but it’s just 24 hours on a flight and you have to get on with it.”
The McKeevers have long been frequent flyers to Australia. Johnny and Susie spent their honeymoon at Yarraman Park Stud 29 years ago, their association with the Mitchell family stemming from the Australian links made by Johnny’s late father Peter McKeever, the former managing director of the Curragh Bloodstock Agency.
“My father and [business partner] Johnny Harrington were quite pioneering in building up links with Australia." - Johnny McKeever
Johnny and Susie McKeever with James Ferguson
“My father and [business partner] Johnny Harrington were quite pioneering in building up links with Australia. Then, about 10 or 12 years ago, we met Gai Waterhouse through a mutual friendship with Peter and Frances Stanley. She gave Susie and I a helping hand in doing more business in Australia and we started buying UK stayers for her to bring down to Australia.”
Aussie business and subsequent success
Among those purchases were the subsequent Group 1 winners The Offer (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) and Glencadam Gold (Ire) (Refuse To Bend {Ire}). “We've had a lot of success doing that over the years, although it's got a lot more difficult recently to get hold of the horses you want,” McKeever admits.
"It's got a lot more difficult recently to get hold of the horses you want." - Johnny McKeever
Among the clients he’s been buying horses for in Melbourne are up-and-coming British-born trainer Archie Alexander as well as Hong Kong owner Bob Lee.
He says, “Hong Kong's very important, and this is sort of tying it back with the two hemispheres. I don’t I sell a lot of Australian racehorses to Hong Kong. I sell more European horses in training, but the Hong Kong buyers like to come to Australia for the yearlings.”
Johnny and Olly McKeever at the recent Inglis Classic Sale
The dual-hemisphere knowledge and contacts have stood McKeever in good stead when it comes to finding and recommending stallions for shuttling duties and he has formed a close relationship with Sam Hayes of Cornerstone Stud. In its former guise as Lindsay Park Stud, the South Australian farm played a key role in the early days of the shuttle stallion business when Robert Sangster and John Magnier sent Hayes’s grandfather, the legendary trainer and stud master Colin Hayes, a first batch of horses from Ireland.
Currently, three of the farm’s five stallions — Zebedee (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), Sir Prancealot (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) and Free Eagle (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) — have been sourced with McKeever’s assistance.
"He found a different niche, and he's got a good local mare population to support them. South Australia's a magical place to breed a horse.” - Johnny McKeever on Sam Hayes' SA operation
He says, “Sam Hayes had a period of needing new horses and the South Australian market wasn't strong enough for him to get involved in Group 1 winners from Sydney and Melbourne because they're just so valuable. He found a different niche, and he's got a good local mare population to support them. South Australia's a magical place to breed a horse.”
Free Eagle was sourced to stand at Cornerstone Stud in SA with the assistance of Johnny McKeever
While few people will be expecting Free Eagle to dominate the early first-season sire tables, there is nevertheless an increasing buzz about his offspring, both in Europe, where he will have his first runners in the coming months, and in Australia, where his first yearlings are gracing the sales grounds, selling for up to $250,000 at the recent Inglis Premier Sale.
"We’re excited about Free Eagle because it does seem that High Chaparral has a sort of affinity with Australia.” - Johnny McKeever
“High Chaparral has done so well in Australia and now his sons are coming through,” says McKeever.
“There’s So You Think doing incredibly well down here, and Dundeel. Some shuttle stallions obviously don't seem to work with the local mare population all that well, but some do. It's a question of finding them, and I have to say we’re excited about Free Eagle because it does seem that High Chaparral has a sort of affinity with Australia.”
He adds, “Sir Prancealot is extremely underrated. He now has a permanent home in South Australia and it will be very interesting to see how he goes. He could be anything, but obviously he's starting in a brand new hemisphere. Funnily enough, he's doing incredibly well in California.”
Dual- hemisphere difference
McKeever does plenty of shuttling between the two hemispheres himself. Though he will miss the sales in Adelaide to be at home for the Cheltenham Festival, he is very clear about how Australia has the edge on his adopted home country of England when it comes to racing.
Johnny McKeever in the Norhern Hemisphere
“It's so simple. It's just that they've got proper prize-money here,” he says. “It just makes everything work. If you see a yearling you like in Australia and you buy that horse for, let's say, $100,000, which is a very doable price in Australia, it's not unrealistic you might even get the price of your yearling back if you just win say two races, and I’m not even talking about stakes races.”
He continues, “The prize-money enables syndicators to buy with confidence. Much of the buying is speculative in the sense that they don't know which syndicate is actually eventually going to be put together to own that horse that they just bought, but they're very confident that it will happen and that’s very refreshing.
"When I saw Gai Waterhouse operating for the first time at Magic Millions, I couldn't believe that she would just bid on all these yearlings and then there would be people almost forming an orderly queue to take a share in them.” - Johnny McKeever
“I always remember someone saying that when you sign for a horse in Newmarket and they see you've got a docket in your hand, everyone runs a mile because they don't want to be asked to buy a share. When I saw Gai Waterhouse operating for the first time at Magic Millions, I couldn't believe that she would just bid on all these yearlings and then there would be people almost forming an orderly queue to take a share in them.”
Johnny and Olly McKeever at the Gold Coast Magic Millions Sale
McKeever is making his current round of Australian tours solo while Susie remains in Newmarket to undergo chemotherapy for a brain tumour. He will doubtless be keen to have her back by his side despite the fact that the country’s breeding business is now familiar territory.
He says, “At this stage, I think I've got to the point when I go to the sales in Australia and I now know all the sellers and the other agents. It’s almost to the same extent as I would know them if I went to Tattersalls in Newmarket. It's become second nature to me now, and I really enjoy it. The sales companies really do go out of their way to make foreign buyers welcome.”
