During Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale, the Newmarket, England-based Ace Stud made a splash when it dopped $5 million to secure Puca, dam to Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mage and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Dornoch . Immediately, the expectation was that Puca would be heading overseas. But Ace's bloodstock and racing manager Paul Curran quickly put any speculation to rest, saying she would stay in Kentucky. It was a decision Ace needed to make quickly as it did not plan on bidding on Puca.
With such a headline-grabbing purchase in North America, the question was often asked, "Who is Ace?" Puca's ticket, being signed by the Raging Torrent Syndicate, only led to more questions regarding who was involved in the purchase and the operation.
Curran spoke with BloodHorse ahead of Day 2 of the recently completed Tattersalls December Mare Sale, where Ace spent $3,422,180 on six head on the sale's opening day and $3,783,580 through two days (not including sales believed to be either by Ace under different names or by affiliated groups—more on that later).
Curran discusses his start in the industry, plans for Puca, and how Ace wants the industry to talk about it.
BloodHorse: How did you get started in the industry?
Paul Curran: I've worked directly and indirectly with the operation for four years now. I come from a breeding background. My dad and myself breed a couple of horses and a couple of mares at home. So I caught the bug that way, and soon got into it. With my university degree in equine science, I caught the bug for the bloodstock side of things, and got a brilliant opportunity to work with BBA Ireland four or five years ago. I got to know (Yulong Investments chairman Zhang Yuesheng) that way. Since then, the thing has evolved severely, and in a huge way, in a great way. I started working directly for him about two years ago now and I've seen the exponential growth that's happened in the meantime. It's been really good to watch. I can see how driven he is, and not just here, but internationally, as you can see. We've had a large presence in America in the last number of years. It's been an incredible journey, and one that is only starting for him especially, and for us here in Europe as well.
BH: Puca, at the time when you bought her, you said you really weren't sure what the plans were, but she was going to stay in the States. Has there been any more clarity since then?
PC: We were pretty quick to make a decision after that. Obviously, at the time, she was of huge interest to buy her. We thought she was going to make a lot more money than she did. We were sitting inside (near) the sales ring, and we saw a price that we thought was a little bit weird. So we got involved, and we got her pretty quick. We were very happy with the price we got her. At that time, we didn't have an immediate plan, we were just happy we bought her. … We are probably going to mate her to some outside stallions. Yes, she was signed on as Raging Torrent Syndicate. That's a little bit of a marketing ploy on behalf of our stallion, which I think we've done a good job. We've got a lot of people talking about it. But the immediate plans were to get her back to Brookdale Farm, back to Fred and Sarah Seitz, who've done a fantastic job. They keep our mares in Kentucky. They're really, really good people, and she's back there safe and sound. We haven't decided on a stallion yet, but we're probably looking at someone, either the Gun Runner or Into Mischief lines. Obviously, Good Magic is very well represented in the family (with full siblings Mage and Dornoch), so he could be an option there. But the plan will be probably cover to a couple of outside stallions for two, three years, hopefully thinking that we could probably make something back on the mare and the purchase price. And then maybe think about covering one of our stallions, Raging Torrent, especially.
BH: You were surprised at how low the price was for her? Were you originally planning on getting in on the bidding, or was it one of those things where halfway through, you're like, wait a second?
PC: The latter. Halfway through. That whole sale at Fasig, I thought a lot of the prices were kind of undercut what we thought they would be. We didn't get involved at the time before the sale. (But) we were quick to act. We saw what price she was making, and we only bid once, and we had her. We were very pleased to see what we got her at. … The original plan was, obviously watch and see. We knew what she was. We knew she was a phenomenal, phenomenal mare. We thought she would probably fall outside our budget for her, and she didn't, and we ended up getting her. That was really pleasing to pick her up for the price we got. Look, there's no such thing as value when you buy a mare, right? I think we got her at a good price, let's put it that way.
BH: You mentioned the Raging Torrent Syndicate at the November sales and the Carl Spackler Syndicate. Who is involved in those syndicates, and is there any difference from Ace?
PC: Nothing at all. You can see it in everything we do around here. We like to rename some tickets different things. No one else is involved other than ourselves. It's a complete buy. Just solely on a marketing point of view. We've done it before with our own stallions here. Lucky Vega. It was Lucky Vega Syndicate. Sometimes we like to just write down his name. That was it.
BH: Ace recently rebranded. Can you share more about the evolution of the Ace brand?
PC: It's something obviously pretty new. We've purchased what was originally called Dullingham Park Stud in March this year. Before that, we had no property. In July, we purchased Willingham House Stud, which is where our resident broodmare band stands and since then, we've expanded. We've got numerous properties around the area. But again, from that, when we purchased Dullingham, there was no brand other than what we were originally used to, Yulong. The thought process was we needed to look at something new. We're a newly imposed entity coming into the bloodstock game and the breeding world. A family member, Harris Li (Zhang's son-in-law), who is the owner of the company, he came up with the name, and he's our general manager up here. We work alongside him every day. He's very, very passionate about the game and very passionate about evolving this side of Europe and America into a huge entity. There's no real background as to the name. We put a new brand on it and stamped it with pretty much what we've used before, same color schemes and stuff like that. So it looks very much the same. So you see our horses running in the same color. So there's no change other than the name. It's all pretty transparent.
BH: What does the operation look like now?
PC: Brilliant. We've got a stallion operation, probably from last week, looking at one of the most exciting young sires in Europe at the moment, to have runners in two years' time. We had a fantastic week (at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale) with the foals and key average £70,000 (for) Shaquille from a £15,000 covering fee, which is insane. The operation looks pretty good at the moment. And a new site, the stud farm itself. It's a beautiful property, and we've got a lot of new people coming and starting to work with us. We've got Ben Shoare, who just started as nominations manager out of the stud. We've got some phenomenal people: Lilly Sahla does our marketing, (racing secretary) Claudia Metaireau, and Ben Hyde is our stud manager. We've got a very young team, very good, passionate team. It's an exciting project, and it looks like it's just going to keep expanding. It's a pleasure to be part of, and we've got a lot of people talking about us. It's nice to see it grow, and to see it from its infancy stage.
BH: You've mentioned Yulong. What is the relationship between Yulong and Ace?
PC: Ace stands Yulong stallions. That's solely the job for us, is to stand them. We've got a couple of broodmare farms around and manage the mares for them there as well. It's a close correlation, but in simplicity, that's what Ace does.
BH: Ace made a big splash (on Day 1 of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale). How important is it for Ace to have a really high profile?
PC: It really is in every sense, from racing, bloodstock, to the breeding world. It's very important that we're marketed well, and we're on everyone's mind, on everyone's lips. I think we're doing a good job of it. It's good to go into the sales ring and have the support from the team to buy the mares and to buy the horses. It's very important to us that our brand is treated right and shown right in the world. It's an important thing to have a good brand.
BH: What's the next thing for Ace? The next goal?
PC: Just to keep expanding and to keep at a healthy level of expansion as well. We obviously don't want to blow out like a balloon pretty quickly. We want to do a nice, gradual growth, and we're achieving that so far. We're only in existence not eight, nine months. We've already seen a huge expansion, not just within the bloodstock, but with the team as well. We'd like to expand through our broodmare side. Internationally, obviously in America, we've got two new stallions (Raging Torrent and Carl Spackler) over there. It's quite important that we can support them quite heavily, which we've done already in November at Fasig and Keeneland. Just a steady, easy, gradual expansion. And obviously, the end goal is to have some good horses on the track. That's what we're doing here. That's what we're breeding at home, to have some very important horses on the track will be the goal.
BH: With the stallions that you have in the States and Puca, are there thoughts, or even plans, that maybe you should get property in the States?
PC: Not at the moment. We've got some really good people around us in America. We work very closely with Bill Farish and Lane's End, and David Ingordo helps us a lot out there as well. We have some really good people that we work with, some very healthy relationships—the Seitzes at Brookdale—some superb people that make our lives a whole lot easier. We don't have to worry about tending to the horses and doing that. We know that they're safe. So at the moment, that's not an immediate plan. … We're very much thankful for the help and support we get. Even our trip to Kentucky was really good, and we really enjoyed it. Everyone was really nice to us, from the sales companies all the way through to the buyers and sellers. We enjoy going out there, and we will spend a lot more time out there as well.
