Joe Callan / Whitsbury Manor Stud
GREY days abound
Little wonder Kildare native, Joe Callan describes the thoroughbred industry as a “travel pass”, given the breadth of experience he built up prior to taking up station at Whitsbury Manor Stud
Words: Lissa Oliver
Sitting down to chat with Joe Callan, head of bloodstock and sales at Whitsbury Manor Stud, I’m reminded of not only the dedication required for this industry, but of the opportunities it presents, and how blessed we all are to be involved.
In a nutshell, living the dream; a phrase no doubt already used more than once elsewhere within these pages by an exuberant owner, an elated jockey or a well-rewarded sales consignor. “I grew up in Kildare, so I was immersed in the thoroughbred industry from the get-go,” Callan says. “As a child I was fortunate to grow up in Ragusa Stud, where my father (Andrew) was assistant manager, and my mam (Siobhán) is part of the Fahey family in Kildare, who have had great success in numerous facets of the industry such as trainers and farriers, so from childhood onwards I was never far from it all.
“I suppose I always had a strong interest, but it was really sparked when my dad had some mares of his own. I used to love helping out with them and have very fond memories of taking them to Goffs, and an added bonus was getting a few days off school for it at the time!” That interest has taken Callan around the world and it’s a recurring theme in our conversation of how willing industry professionals are to help those seeking a career with thoroughbreds. Although Callan always knew he wanted to work in the industry, he is grateful to his parents for encouraging him to opt for a back-up plan and study English and history at UCD.
“I still wanted to get as much experience as possible at the time, so when I was in my first year at university I decided I wanted to work in Newmarket for the summer and I think I emailed every stud in Newmarket, all in the one email, looking for a job. Luckily, Brian O’Rourke at the National Stud gave me one – it was a great experience and only spurred on my desire to make a career in the industry.”
As soon as he had successfully finished university in 2014, Callan was off on his travels again. He isn’t wrong when he describes the industry as a “travel pass”. He spent time with the legendary Australian trainer Gai Waterhouse and eventually became a foreman of her two-year-old yard.
“Gai was a great person to work for,” he reveals. “She’s very hard on you, but as a young 20-year-old I most definitely needed it. Just to see how she operates was an invaluable experience, she’s an incredible trainer and businesswoman. After my stint there, I moved on to Arrowfield Stud for something different, to do the yearling sales and preparation, which was eye-opening at the time and gave a good insight to the Australian industry.”
“Something I learned quickly was that as a young person in the industry, everyone you met along the way was happy to help and provide great advice”
It was there that Callan met some of the graduates who had just finished the Irish National Stud diploma course and they encouraged him to aim toward a fresh objective.
“I came back to Ireland and David Cox gave me a job at Baroda Stud for the yearling season before I went to the Myerscoughs’ Colbinstown Stud for the breaking, which tied in nicely timing-wise before the INS course started.
“Something I learned quickly was that as a young person in the industry, everyone you met along the way was happy to help and provide great advice. David Cox at Baroda Stud was always a good sounding board and help for me and I ended working there at different times over the years when between different ventures!”
The world-renowned Irish National Stud course is so often the stepping stone to greatness for many graduates over the decades.
“It was such a great group of people in our year at the Irish National Stud, many of the group have gone on to be extremely successful, and it’s such a recognised and respected course. For me it then led to my place on the Godolphin Flying Start scholarship.
“(That) was incredible and a massive help to my career. The experiences you get and the people you meet is just massive. It’s funny how it works out; after the course I was due to go to America where I had a job lined up, but the visa proved extraordinarily difficult, which is how I ended up in the UK at the time.”
“It’s incredible to work with Havana Grey, the most exciting young stallion in Europe”
After Callan graduated in 2018, he returned to Newmarket and took up the position of sales and nominations manager at the National Stud.
“I got to know a lot of the breeders and clients very quickly while I was there and built connections that have carried through and are a great help to me now at Whitsbury Manor Stud.
“But I felt after three years that I needed a change, and the opportunity came up to manage Market Rasen Racecourse, which like the National Stud, is owned by the Jockey Club. The job was a maternity cover, and I saw it as a chance to broaden my horizons a little bit and do something different. While there, and to try get more business experience, I also did an MBA Masters, through the University of Liverpool. I thought I was probably half-mad taking it on while working full-time, initially at a racecourse, and continuing when working at a stud was definitely a challenge, but one I am glad I did.”
Now also a trustee of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, to describe Callan as well-rounded would be an extreme understatement and by now, he was on the radar of Ed Harper at Whitsbury Manor Stud, where the success of the resident stallions and stud overall was taking a sharp upward trajectory.
Taking over in 2010 from his father Chris, Harper had not been afraid to take risks and those purchases were clearly paying handsome dividends. The stud has come a long way since standing its first stallion, Philip Of Spain, in 1973. At that time Whitsbury Manor was owned by bookmaker William Hill, for whom Chris Harper had been farm manager since 1963. Harper senior purchased the stud upon Hill’s death in 1986.
Europe’s leading first-season sire, Sergei Prokofiev had two stakes winners on the board by June
Joe Callan
“I hadn’t been at the racecourse that long when Ed got in touch to share a few ideas with me,” Callan reveals. “We’d worked together while I was at the National Stud through Lope Y Fernandez and some other dealings, and now Havana Grey was doing so well, he felt he needed some extra help with the overall expansion that comes with it.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the racecourse management, but did feel my passion was the bloodstock and the breeding side of it, so as soon as the maternity cover was over, I left Market Rasen to join Ed. I’m very fortunate to be here, Whitsbury Manor is an incredible place to be and there is a great team here, and some obviously very exciting horses – I was very lucky, the timing couldn’t have been better for me really! Ed is a very dynamic, forward-thinking person who is great to work with; what he and the team here have achieved with the stud is incredible.”
Callan’s well-trodden pathway of exploring many different aspects of the industry is not unusual and clearly illustrates the links throughout the racing and breeding sectors, as well as how important an understanding of the industry in its entirety can be.
“I had deliberately tried different things to get a good grounding and comprehension of the industry as a whole; it’s been great to see the different side of things. As head of bloodstock and sales, my role here is very varied depending on the time year. It’s a small but great team and we all try help where we can, so no doubt the different experiences gathered along the way come in useful!
“The roster here overall currently is very strong, and it’s incredible to work with Havana Grey, the most exciting young stallion in Europe. It is well-known we limit his book to circa 140 mares, which when we account for breeding right holders and our own mares, it does unfortunately leave quite limited space, which in turn results in having to disappoint a lot of people. This is undoubtedly the hardest part of the job, but that’s part and parcel of managing such a fantastic stallion,” Callan accepts.
“Something Havana Grey has done which is extremely impressive, is that he has managed to maintain his momentum with books from his initial years which would not have the strength and depth that people may expect – at the end of the day his two-year-olds from 2024 were covered off a fee of £6,000 and he still managed to produce high-class horses such as Arabian Dusk, and similarly his two-year-olds from last year, which included Vandeek. You only have to look at his foals catalogued for the upcoming sales to see the difference in the pedigrees to previous years, which is very exciting.”
The height restriction of 16 hands and under for mares for Havana Grey has been well-advertised, and although size might be a touchy subject, Havana Grey is far too big in prominence to take any offence. This has done nothing to limit the quality of his book. In 2024 he covered 55 black-type performers, including Group 1 winners Glass Slippers, Mabs Cross and Sky Lantern and the dams of numerous Group 1 winners including Anmaat, Big Evs, Chaldean, Romantic Warrior, Starlust and Vandeek just to name a few.
“It is now well-known that we will only cover mares that are 16 hands or below, purely as the stallion struggles on bigger mares. He is only 15.2½ hands, he is short legged and deep chested. Thankfully, he has great libido and fertility, but in 2022 when he had his “breakout” year per se, we quickly saw a trend of large mares returning to the shed, while smaller and medium-sized mares went in foal easily. Overall, he was feeling the strains from bigger mares more than we would have liked.
“We of course have tried ramps and any other tricks you can think of, but he clearly wasn’t comfortable covering on them. We try to be as transparent as possible and really this is for the breeders’ benefit as much as anyone else, who of course want to get their mare in foal. We also firmly believe it is not that restrictive, as the vast majority of mares fall into that bracket.”
From only three crops of racing age to date, Havana Grey already boasts 11 group winners, 22 stakes winners and 36 stakes performers, all impressively conceived from a fee of £8,000 or less. His dramatic rise in popularity saw him rise to a fee of £55,000 in 2024, while in 2025 he will stand at a private fee, something which may have surprised a lot of breeders and bloodstock enthusiasts.
“The private fee is set purely to encourage people to discuss their mares with us. We are very much open for business with him for suitable mares. We have not hidden the limited number of nominations available in the horse, or the height restrictions. Often when fees are announced, people understandably just try to reserve multiple spots in popular horses, where with Havana Grey this just isn’t possible due the factors mentioned, so we just take it on a mare-by-mare basis to ensure the best for horse and breeders.”
Of course, he is only one of four stallions standing at Whitsbury Manor Stud and there is a fifth, owned in partnership, based at the National Stud. Relinquishing pride of place to Havana Grey is the ever-reliable Showcasing. The son of Oasis Dream, standing at £35,000, is the sire of 145 stakes performers to date, including two Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winners and multiple Group 1 winners Moohather, Advertise and Quiet Reflection. Thanks to the remarkable Lake Victoria, among others, he is already establishing himself as an exciting broodmare sire.
Standing at £8,000 is the 2024 leading European first-season sire, Sergei Prokofiev, by the outstanding sire of sires Scat Daddy. Quick to get off the mark with his first crop, he had sired two stakes winners by June, including the imposing Arizona Blaze, so narrowly touched off in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Alongside is the top-class Group 1 sprinter Dragon Symbol, standing at £8,000, who covered a full book of 140 mares in his first season at stud.
“He was received very well in his first year at stud, we sent him a lot of very nice mares as did our regular clients, we can’t wait to see his foals in the coming months – he is the most stunning physical with a great mind, so fingers crossed they can take after him.”