In The Hot Seat: Conor Hyland

TDN article published 14th January 2025.

Conor Hyland is a graduate of the celebrated Irish National Stud Thoroughbred Breeding Course. Since completing the course in 2019, he has been based at the stud, where he holds the role as nominations and sales assistant.

This year represents a big one for the INS with long-time star of the roster Invincible Spirit (Ire) retired from stallion duties. Hyland discusses the new stallions on the roster, including first-season sire Shouldvebeenaring  (GB) and Lucky Vega (Ire), whose first two-year-olds are set to hit the track in Europe this year.

The Irish Stallion Trail represented an opportunity for the Irish National Stud to show off Shouldvebeenaring. How was he received by breeders and racing fans?

We are always excited to showcase the roster during the Irish Stallion Trail. It’s a great initiative and we had a busy weekend as usual. Shouldvebeenaring has been well received by anyone who has seen him so far. He’s got incredible action for a sprinter and overall I think his profile ticks a lot of the right boxes at his price point. He’s by champion first, second and third crop sire in Havana Grey and officially rated equal to him as well. A multiple stakes winner at two, three and four, I think his durability is worth mentioning as he ran 12 times at three between January to October improving as the season progressed. He was only beaten a neck in the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup before rounding off his three-year-old season with a third-place in the G1 Prix de la Foret.

Tell us a bit about your own role working at the stud and how it has developed.

I’m a graduate of the INS Thoroughbred Breeding Course (class of 2019). After the course I was fortunate enough to take on a role as the business intern here for 12 months, which was a great learning experience and my first opportunity to get office experience working closely with the nominations and breeding team. I then had plans to do a stint in America but unfortunately Covid put a stop to that. Thankfully, Cathal Beale kept me on and I stayed at the INS to do yearling and foal prep before mixing it between stallions and the foaling unit taking up my current role in nominations in the summer of 2021. I never really envisaged doing anything else. I grew up surrounded by horses so I guess it was going to be hard to get away from them!

In many ways, you were probably destined to work in bloodstock given your father Jimmy is the stud director at Kildangan Stud. What sort of influence has he had on your career?

Dad has always been very supportive and he has always been there to guide me and offer advice.

Apart from your Dad, who have been the biggest mentors to you?

Cathal Beale and Gary Swift have also given me endless opportunities to learn and progress.

You have seen a lot of change in a short space of time at the Irish National Stud but what are the emotions heading into 2025 with Invincible Spirit now retired, Lucky Vega a leading fancy for first-season sires’ honours and a new stallion in Shouldvebeenaring to promote? It will be a busy year!

You could say the roster is in a bit of a transitional period following the retirement of the great Invincible Spirit. Both Lucky Vega and Nando Parrado (GB) have their first runners in 2025. Lucky Vega has already had his first crop of Southern Hemisphere runners and looks extremely promising with dual stakes winner Within The Law leading his charge Down Under. Nando Parrado comes from the successful Kodiac (GB) sire line which has produced Hello Youmzain (Fr), Kodi Bear (Ire) and Ardad (Ire) in recent seasons. The Coventry winner has soldiers in the yards of Clive Cox, Eve Johnston Houghton and Gavin Cromwell to name a few. We will be following both of them closely. Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) covered over 200 mares in 2024 and with both Haatem (Ire) and Lady Of Spain (Ire) staying training as four-year-olds, we’re hopeful he can continue to build on his promising start to his stud career.

Away from your Irish National Stud role, you do a bit of breeding and pinhooking. How has that been going?

Last year was tough. We didn’t manage to get what we wanted for our Space Blues (Ire) filly so we will breeze her in the spring. She’s got a good pedigree and I was a big fan of the stallion as a racehorse so hopefully she can come good. I have shares in a couple of mares and I’m looking forward to following their runners this season.

What has been your best day in the game?

Watching High Spirited (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}) land the Listed Upavon Stakes at Salisbury last year at huge odds. She was a foal purchase by a group of us including my cousin Ian, brother Eoin and Dad.

And the worst?

Watching Haatem go so close to emulating his own sire in the Irish 2,000 Guineas last year was a tough watch for the last 100 yards.

Hopes or ambitions for 2025?

Professionally to get as many mares as possible into the stallions here. Personally, to hopefully breed a nice winner or two and get some sale ring success!

Share