Ireland’s call for Williams

Nick Williams’ passport is awash with green stamps. Regular trips to Ireland are now commonplace in the proud Melbournian’s calendar and, with more horses-in-training than ever with County Kilkenny-based trainer Joseph O’Brien, they’re only set to rise in the future.

Nick’s father Lloyd Williams’ navy blue silks with white armlets have become synonymous with Australian racing and most notably the Melbourne Cup which they have carried to victory on six occasions.

Four of those winners were trained out of the Williams family’s state-of-the-art training facility Macedon Lodge and yet, at the end of last year it was put on the market with the announcement that their training in Australia would be outsourced and there would be a significant shift in their interests to Europe.

Perhaps six Melbourne Cups is enough for anyone, only the ‘Cups King’ Bart Cummings would have handled more, but Lloyd Williams has not lost interest in the race - far from it. The octogenarian still has his sights firmly set on a seventh win but as times change so must strategy and, shedding some light on the decision to sell Macedon Lodge, his son Nick explains;

“My father is in his 80th year and he was very much hands on up [at Macedon Lodge] every day and he’s just got to a point where he doesn’t want to do that anymore. I’ve got the view, coming from a different generation, that you can employ people to do a job and you let them do it.

"I said why don’t we put the horses to a couple of trainers that go well and that we respect. That way we don’t have to worry about getting up at three in the morning and staff not turning up and all the little things that you have to worry about. We’ll let that be someone else’s problem.”

There’s more to it than early alarm clocks and unreliable staff though. In the fast world that we live in there is opportunity for those with patience and the Williams father and son duo have identified a gap to be exploited in a European market, which - as Australia did before it - has become increasingly swept up by commercial speed.

The changing European market

“There’s two things that have happened,” says Williams. “Firstly, over the last 10 years the breed in Australia, whilst probably superior over six furlongs, are not up to the grade once they get to 10 furlongs. That was what really started us thinking about making a change.

"Then, what’s happened in the Northern Hemisphere I think over the last five years is that, like in Australia at yearling sales, there seems to be this need for speed which is odd given the program of races up there. A lot of the middle-distance horses seem to go unloved at the yearling sales, so it seemed to be a good opportunity to secure some value.

"You can buy some very nice pedigrees and some nice types over there for reasonable money. When you compare that to the yearling sales in Australia and anything that’s bred to go over a mile and a quarter, you’re definitely buying them better over there than you are here.

“In the last fifty years, as an owner we’d have been the biggest buyer of yearlings in Australia,” continues Williams. “But the breed in Australia is no longer producing the type of horses that we’re keen on and so we’ve transferred that model over to the Northern Hemisphere.

"I guess we’re also pretty fortunate in that I’ve got a very good friend over there, Paul Shanahan, who’s been very helpful to us in sourcing yearlings. Obviously, we’ve got a very close relationship with the Magnier family too who have been a great help in getting us established [in Ireland].”

He might not be short of friends in Tipperary but the Irishman with the biggest draw for Nick Williams is Joseph O’Brien. The 26-year-old trainer won the Williams family their sixth Melbourne Cup with Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}), pipping none other than his own father, Aidan O’Brien, to the post in only his first full year with a license.

A winning combination

The following summer, Latrobe (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) brought home the Irish Derby for the Cup-winning combination, providing both owner and trainer with their first European Classic.

“The thing that keeps us really keen on [racing in Ireland] I must say is Joseph O’Brien,” says Williams. “You know, at 26 years of age, it’s like he’s been doing it for 100 years. He’s a remarkable young man.

"We’ve known Aidan and Joseph for a long time and a fella like Joseph O’Brien only comes along once in a generation. We sort of backed him from the day he got his license and we’ve had a lot of success together.

"We’ve had his two biggest winners on the flat I suppose and we’re very happy to be in his camp. We think we’ve got a pretty good system over there.”

A good system is something that the Williams team take great pride in having been hands-on in their training regime at Macedon Lodge for so many years, and when it comes to being owners, they like to keep their finger on the pulse.

“I try and get over there four or five times a year,” says Williams. “But I talk to Joseph a couple of times a week probably. We know what’s going on with them all, he’s good like that.

"We’re a bit different to most owners because we’ve run our own operation, we’re used to being very hands-on so all the little things that go on in the training regime are things that interest us and programming of the horses is something that we’re very keen to be a part of. We like to think that we think it all through and so, without second guessing him, we like to be involved.”

With “35 to 40” horses with Joseph O’Brien, there’s little doubting their involvement at the young trainer’s Owning base; a family heirloom of sorts that is referred to simply as “The Hill” by those in the know. Because, well, if you know, you know.

“Joseph’s got an absolutely super facility at ‘The Hill’ and the horses do well there,” says Williams. “It’s been successful over three generations of trainers, not to take anything away from [Joseph’s] ability, but some places have success and some places don’t. That’s obviously a place that has good horse after good horse, there’s no doubt over it, whether it be trained by his grandfather, his mother, his father or himself, the horses do well there which I think is a big help.”

A strategic approach

There are a few less hills at Australian training centres which is one of many differences between the two racing nations. Another prominent contrast is prizemoney; Australia’s being very good and Ireland’s perceived as poor in comparison.

Some might think it financial folly then to be shifting one’s focus to Europe where owners often look on with envy at the prize pots in other jurisdictions around the world, none more so than Australia? Williams disagrees.

“The prizemoney in Europe is very poor day to day but - and this is what surprises me about the rush of speed horses in Europe - the prizemoney for those good middle distance races is pretty good. We were lucky enough to win the Irish Derby in 2018 and, particularly with the way the Aussie dollar goes, that’s a good money race for us, it’s a big pot.

“We’ve taken the view,” continues Williams, “that if the horses are good enough to be Group 1 horses over [in Ireland] then obviously we’ll leave them there because they can do very well and get plenty of prize money. But if we’ve got horses that are a level below with Joseph, we’ll probably bring them down here and week-to-week they can earn plenty of money.

"What we’re really doing is, rather than just putting them all on a plane and bringing them out here willy-nilly, we’re establishing what horses we think are suited here and what horses are suited there and trying to have a bit of a strategic approach to it.”

Businessmen to the bone, there seems to be strategy in everything the Williams team do, and Nick maintains that if a deal makes financial sense, anything can be traded.

“One thing that we’re renowned for in Australia,” says Williams, “is that no-one’s ever scared to make an offer for a horse that we own because we’re sellers. Everything we own is for sale and everything’s got its price in the horse business. Whether it’s our best horse or our worst horse, they’re all for sale, it’s just a question of dollars.”

When it comes to their best horses, Williams lists off a few. There appears to be no shortage of ammunition going into the Irish flat season and one in particular that may have Classic credentials is juvenile Group 3 winner Degraves (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) who, incidentally, shares a few characteristics with another decent horse in their string - the Irish Derby winner, Latrobe.

Both are sons of Camelot (GB), both were purchased at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale for under 100,000gns and, even if Degraves does not go onto be as good as his stablemate, both represent serious value; just the type of sound investments that Williams was looking for in his move towards the European market.

“In the Northern Hemisphere, we have two great hopes that aren’t necessarily obvious I suppose,” says Williams. “The first is a horse called Degraves who has good 2-year-old form and he’s on a Derby path. Which Derby we’re not sure yet but obviously he’ll tell us as the season goes on. Touch wood, if he comes back well, he’ll be a very nice Camelot colt.

"The other is a very nice Australia horse called Buckhurst who’s just turned four. Joseph thinks he’s really come along over the winter and we’re hoping he’ll be competing in those good mile and a quarter, mile and a half races so those two are very exciting.

"Then obviously we’ve got Master of Reality and Latrobe over there but people already know about them. Master of Reality will probably go to the Melbourne Cup at the end of the season but Latrobe, being a Derby winner who’s just turned five, could be heading to stud. A few races this season will probably see him out and I think he’ll make a very good stallion.

“We’ve also got a lot of 2-year-olds with Joseph,” continues Williams, “and a lot of 2-year-olds just turned three. Some of them have raced, some haven’t and we have some that we’ve got some pretty high hopes for. So we’ve got our fingers crossed that we can unearth another decent horse. Certainly, that Degraves who won the Group 3 at Leopardstown, he’s a really nice horse.”

Australia still part of the future

The Emerald Isle might sit at the core of Williams’ new game plan but he’s keen to stress that they haven’t turned their back on racing in Australia by any means and it still plays a big part in their future plans.

“We’ll still have plenty of runners in Australia,” he confirms, “you’ll just be seeing a bit more of our colours in Europe too.”

Indeed, their colours have already enjoyed success at the highest level at some of the greatest race meetings that Europe has to offer, but for the loyal Melbournians nothing beats a win on home turf and there’s still a gaping hole in their trophy cabinet.

“Over the last fifty years,” says Williams, “our family has been fortunate enough to win nearly all the big races in Australia, and of course we love the Melbourne Cup - it’s bred into our psyche. But there’s still one glaring omission from the mantlepiece and that’s the Cox Plate. I think we’ve run second in it five or six times but haven’t managed to win it. So even though it would be wonderful to have winners at any of the great race meetings around the world, I think if I could only win one more race in my lifetime, it would have to be the Cox Plate.”

So it seems that even though Ireland, on occasion, might take the man out of Melbourne there is certainly no taking Melbourne out of the man.