Candy Meadows senior vice president and chief operating officer Matt Lyons' journey in the Thoroughbred industry began in Ireland when his father gifted him and his brother a Shetland pony when Lyons was about 8 years old. Having been raised on a farm with sheep, Lyons saw better opportunities for a career with horses rather than sheep and cattle.
While earning an equine science and business degree from the University of Limerick, Lyons had the opportunity to come to Kentucky, where he worked for Gerry O'Mara at Glennwood Farm in 1998. After graduating, Lyons worked for Gerry Dilger and then for Frank Taylor at Taylor Made.
Lyons shared how Dilger explained to Taylor why he should hire him. After Taylor asked why he would recommend Lyons for an open position, Dilger said, "The only recommendation I'm going to give you is if you don't hire him, you're an idiot."
Lyons moved to ClassicStar Farm and then joined John Sykes, who founded Woodford Thoroughbreds in 2007, and stayed there until 2019. When Sykes moved his Kentucky operations to Ocala, Fla., Lyons decided to stay in the Bluegrass State.
Cheyenne Stables' Everett Dobson approached Lyons with an opportunity to run his sales division.
"It's been a great adventure. Everett and Janetta and their family are lovely people," Lyons said of the Dobsons. "I have been here five years now. We've turned out some nice horses, and I think we're just getting started."
Among the horses Candy Meadows has sold are Hoosier Philly and millionaire Bay Storm. Candy Meadows bought into multiple graded stakes winner Roses for Debra last year. Lyons said she will likely have one more race in the upcoming Keeneland fall meet before being entered into the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
Recently, at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Candy Meadows sold its first two million-dollar horses. The first, a Nyquist colt went for $1.115 million. The next day, an Into Mischief colt hit the $1 million number on the nose.
BloodHorse: When you think about the industry since you've become part of it, what's the biggest change you've seen take place?
Matt Lyons: One thing I noticed, I suppose, from the sales, is it seems like there are less people buying more horses, which may be the agents. There used to be a lot more trainers at the sale than there are today. Now there's big agents buying a lot of horses for a lot of clients. That's a change.
I think the purse money, and especially now in Kentucky, is spectacular. Since I've been here, we've seen highs and lows. We've seen the strong markets, and we've seen the times when the market was really poor. But actually, during those times, when I worked for Mr. Sykes, we bought some mares, during the down times, that really made us quite a bit of money. So I think if you've got the means in those times when the market's bad, you could pick up some nice bloodstock. And that's what we did at the time when Woodford was starting.
BH: Did you realize that the Keeneland September Sale was the five-year anniversary of Candy Meadows' first consignment?
ML: I didn't really think about it going into it, but I suppose it was, yeah. It certainly has been a goal for us and for me to sell a million-dollar horse. We got close a couple of years ago, we had a $775,000 and last year we had a $750,000. It was definitely a landmark that we wanted to achieve. And I wanted to achieve it for the Dobson family. We know we can produce runners; we've seen it. It takes a while to grow a brand. I think people know us now. They've seen the horses are running, and it was a good time to do that. It was great. The other thing about working for Everett and Janetta is that we have a racing stable, so if we have something in our yearling crop that has some dings on X-rays that maybe the market will not go for, we can put them in our racing stable, take our time, try and develop them, and that's certainly a nice option to have.
BH: How have your operations changed in the five years?
ML: We've definitely tried to up our game. We don't have a lot of mares, about 25 to 30 mares, tops. It's an operation that a lot of the mares that are on the farm actually carried the silks, too. So they were bought as yearlings, went to the racetrack, and if they had enough ability or enough pedigree to come back into the broodmare band, then that's how they made it there. It's extra gratifying when those fillies come back, then they produce, because you think you've made a career from the beginning.
Everett has a really, really good eye going out there and looking at horses and picking these fillies. He really enjoys it. That makes it extra special when a mare like Cariba produces a million-dollar yearling. That was extra special.
We've tried to give ourselves an opportunity to be commercial. We try and breed a mare to each of the top stallions every year. This year, we bred one mare to Gun Runner, one mare to Uncle Mo, one mare to Curlin and (to) Not This Time. We're trying to give our top mares the top horses to be commercial and to give ourselves an opportunity to bring in the income to run the farm. We've got stallion shares; Olympiad was one. We raced him in partnership. We try to support him with some mares as well. When you don't have a lot of mares, though, it's a tricky balance because you have to be commercial, but you can't use up too many of your mares on your stallion shares either. It's a balance when you've got a smaller broodmare band. But so far, we've been able to do it and do it quite well.
BH: For those of us who have never, and probably will never, sell a million-dollar horse, what does that feel like?
ML: It's a thrill. I've done it before Woodford. So we had a $1,900,000 2-year-old a few years ago, and that was amazing. We did that for a client. You can't predict this. You always hope. You go up there with all the vetting on, and you hope that everybody shows up or they hadn't bought the horse before, the money's still there. You walk up to that ring with a lot of hope, but you also realize how high of a threshold it is. It's like winning a grade 1. That's very hard to do. So when it happens, there's an enormous sense of satisfaction for the whole team. ... Everybody that's been part of the journey. And it is a journey because there's so many hoops to jump through from the night the foal is born. There's so many things that can happen to these horses even leading up to a sale. You're hoping they don't run through a fence, or step on a rock, all these things that can stop you along the way. When a horse gets there, and you get through the sale process, and you get through the vetting, and you go up to the ring with everybody lined up. And then you look around, you say, 'OK, they're here. I see them over there. The groups are here.' Once the bidding hit that million-dollar mark, it's just, it's a special, special feeling. ... That was our first million-dollar horse for Candy Meadows. And then the following day, we did it again.
BH: How do you recruit horses for yearling sales?
ML: We don't have a lot of outside horses at Candy Meadows. We will sell for clients, and we have sold for clients, but ... we're not trying to be a Taylor Made or a big commercial operation. We want to sell our own horses. We want to have some client horses, too, at the top end. We don't have a big farm, either, so we can't really bring in many outside horses to prep them, so it kind of hinders us a little bit on that. I want to keep it boutique, so I can concentrate on every horse and give them every opportunity. And I wouldn't want to be spread too thin.
BH: What keeps you excited about your job?
ML: Being on a horse farm, it's a nursery. These horses go on to the racetrack. You've got a graduating class every year going on to the NBA almost. It's getting to watch their careers and getting to see them race and go on to the top level is what we all hope for. You're looking at your mares every year and looking at stallions, and trying to find something that works, and you find something that produces the physical that can do it, It doesn't get old, really. That's the beauty of it. You get a new crop every year, and there's hope with every crop that you can get a top runner out of it.
BH: Is there anything that we haven't touched on that you think would be important for readers to know about you and Candy Meadows?
ML: The horse business is a relationship business like any other. My son isn't going to be in the horse business, but I tell him every day, 'You got to get to know people, make strong relationships and be honest, and work hard.' I've been fortunate in my time in the industry to have had good relationships with Gerry O'Mara and then Frank Taylor and Gerry Dilger and John Sykes and Susan Sykes, and now the Dobsons. I've just been very fortunate to have met some great people along the way and work for passionate people and help them achieve their goals. That's kind of what I try and do. And I've just been very lucky so far.
