European Exports With Olive Gallagher

European Exports is a series where we catch up with people who have left their home countries to make a new life in the racing industry in America. Today, we speak with Olive Gallagher of Frankfort Park Farm.

KR: Where are you from, and when did you come to Kentucky?

OG: We came over here about eight years ago from Ireland. My husband, Brendan, and I had a bloodstock agency in Ireland called Emerald Bloodstock where we did a lot of work all over Europe. We sold Emerald Bloodstock in 2009. Prior to that, we bought Frankfort Park Farm. The idea was to quarantine yearlings going back to Europe; we were shipping a lot of yearlings from the sales here at Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton. So that was really why we bought the farm. We sold the company in Ireland and then we bought some mares here. I don't think we'd really planned to come but suddenly we were here and now we're still here.

KR: How has business been for you and Brendan in Kentucky?

OG: I suppose Kentucky's been lucky enough for us, particularly this year and in the last couple of years; we have been breeding a few good horses. We co-bred Monomoy Girl, who won the Breeders' Cup [her fifth Grade I of the year] and we sold her dam at Fasig-Tipton for a small bit of money [$1.85-million]. We've had four other stakes winners this year, so things are going okay.

KR: Is there anything you miss about Ireland?

OG: Family and friends, for sure. And, maybe some of the food. I suppose brown bread was a big thing for me, I couldn't make it in Ireland but now I've learned how to make it. I don't make it a lot for others, but they actually had a small little competition or a bake off down in McCarthy's in the fall about a year ago, and actually I was lucky enough to win that. A few people are looking for the brown bread, but I don't make it often enough for others.