The High Court has been asked to decide where a breeding stallion, estimated to be worth between £2 million and £3 million (€2.4 million and €3.5 million), should be stabled pending resolution of a dispute over ownership.
The dispute is between Jersey-based businessman Steven Parkin and bloodstock expert Joe Foley, managing director of Ballyhane Stud in Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow.
Mr Parkin, and a UK-registered company he is a member of, Clipper BCS LLP, have sued Mr Foley and Ballyhane claiming full ownership of a stallion called Sands of Mali. The defendants say they are 50 per cent owners.
Sands of Mali is a successful racehorse who finished his racing career in 2020. He now covers mares which have produced progeny that have won 13 races in Britain as well as one each in Ireland and France.
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The horse has been stabled at Ballyhane since it was bought for £270,000 (€323,000) in August 2020.
The issue of ownership has yet to go to full trial but in the meantime Mr Parkin and Clipper on Thursday asked the court to order the horse be sent to a third party stud. Mr Foley opposed the application.
Mr Parkin said in an affidavit that relations between the parties have completely broken down and his side cannot, and do not, trust the defendants to manage the stallion’s stud career.
He said this case is part of a wider row between the parties concerning outstanding covering fees due to them for the stallion and four other thoroughbred breeding stallions which were stabled at Ballyhane.
Mr Foley, in a replying affidavit, said that for more than a decade he bought the vast majority – some £34 million worth – of Mr Parkin’s horses, and managed their racing and stud careers. He said he was tasked with making Mr Parkin’s bloodstock business into what Mr Parkin termed “a superpower”.
He said as a result of his “careful and successful management” Sands of Mali had a current perceived value of between £2 million and £3 million.
In opposing the transfer of the horse to another stud, he said it was important to highlight there is a very high risk that this might result in “a very rapid collapse of his value.”
He also maintains that he and Ballyhane are owed “substantial funds and shares of assets” by Mr Parkin and Clipper, the recovery of which he is “extremely concerned about”. He denies the relationship broke down over his side’s failure to account for and make payments of stallion fees.
Applying for a transfer order on Thursday, Robert Beatty SC, for Mr Parkin and Clipper, said his clients “had not received a red cent” for covering fees in six years from the defendants. At the same time, Mr Foley had “received millions”, he said.
It would be unjust to leave the horse in the possession of the defendants pending the full trial in circumstances where that relationship had broken down, he said.
In reply, Remy Farrell SC, for the defendants, said Mr Parkin and Clipper should not be granted a transfer order as they did not have an obviously strong case and there was “a conspicuous absence of any clear documentation” relating to the horse.
While Mr Parkin says he is the owner, the fact that there is an admitted 50/50 split in the fees received is consistent with a proprietary interest by the defendants in the animal, he said.
It was the defendants’ view that the relationship broke down because Mr Parkin got into financial difficulties and a fire sale of his horse business assets had taken place.
There was a very real concern that the horse had been mortgaged to financiers JP Morgan who have not been informed about the facts of this case, he said.
His side does not have full visibility on the mortgage and the concern is about the possibility that the horse could be seized by JP Morgan, he said.
Mr Justice David Nolan said he hoped to give his decision within the next two weeks.
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