How does a Co Westmeath cattle farmer end up training some of the fastest racehorses in Europe for an Iranian-born football agent and a former jockey from Brazil?

The story of Adrian Murray’s journey from livestock marts to Royal Ascot is barely believable. Murray always had a passion for horses. He traded some show jumpers in his spare time, went racing in Kilbeggan and helped out with the local point-to-point.

In 2007, a neighbour asked him to train a point-to-pointer and the following year, the horse won a little race at Kilbeggan.

Over the next 10 years, Murray continued to send out the odd winner, always over jumps. However, in 2016 he came into contact with a young man named Robson Aguiar, a Brazilian jockey who had arrived in Ireland in 2006 hoping to make a career for himself.

Aguiar found plenty of work in Irish racing stables, but winners were hard to come by. He had gained five years’ experience working for Aidan O’Brien and he also spent time working with Roger O’Callaghan at Tally-Ho Stud in Mullingar, a farm which specialises in preparing two-year-old thoroughbreds for the breeze-up sales every spring.

Encouraged by O’Callaghan, Aguiar started trading horses himself in 2012, operating out of a rented yard near Mullingar. In 2016 a Tally-Ho filly (who failed to sell for even €3,000) found her way into the nearby yard of Adrian Murray and Aguiar, who had never ridden a winner in Ireland, was her jockey.

The filly’s name was Shes Ranger and she won a little race in Dundalk that year. The following season, she finished third in a Group 3 race at Leopardstown before being sold on for approximately €70,000.

Bloodstock

By this time Aguiar was happy to give up race-riding to focus on bloodstock trading. His company Aguiar Bloodstock quickly developed a reputation for selling breeze-up winners, and he came to the attention of Kia Joorabchian – a very wealthy football agent who wanted success on the racecourse.

Aguiar helped Joorabchian find future winners, notably Go Bears Go, winner of the Group 2 Railway Stakes at the Curragh in 2021 and narrowly beaten in the Breeders’ Cup in the USA that year.

Hugely impressed, Joorabchian increased the budget and Aguiar found himself buying horses for six-figure sums. Most were sent to high-profile trainers in England, but a few stayed in Westmeath where they are officially trained by Adrian Murray – no doubt with Aguiar playing a hands-on role.

A week after Cheltenham this year, the flat season opened at the Curragh and the very first race was won by a horse trained by Murray for Joorabchian. The colt’s name was Bucanero Fuerte, and on 12 August he won the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh.

This is a race Aidan O’Brien has won 17 times since 1998, and it’s safe to say not many cattle farmers have ever had a runner in the race, let alone the winner.

The fairytale is not over yet. The same partnership have another ‘rocket’ named Valiant Force, already a Royal Ascot winner this year. It’s likely Valiant Force – and possibly Bucanero Forte – will be aimed at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on 3 November, where they would be leading contenders.

What a tale that would be. There won’t be a cow milked in Mullingar that weekend!