Persian Force

It is not exactly a state secret that the team at Tally-Ho Stud, to use that old phrase, prefer their horses to do the talking. This could be misconstrued as a lack of friendliness but if you talk to other members of the bloodstock community about Tony and Anne O'Callaghan and their sons Roger and Henry, you will almost certainly hear variations of the phrase "lovely people". Indeed, within the family kitchen at the stone farmhouse just a short stretch up from the stallion yard a warm welcome is issued...

We can harness Thoroughbreds to our best and worst, to our altruism or avarice--but thankfully we will never alter the essential, inherent wonder of the breed, nor maintain the illusion that we are ever truly in control of its destiny. There's a genuine possibility, this weekend, that a German colt could elevate himself to the top of the global sophomore crop by winning the G1 Japan Cup. Yet Tünnes (Ger) (Guiliani {Ire}) was a wholly inadvertent acquisition at the Baden-Baden yearling sales, his purchaser having dropped out at €20,000 only...

Less than a week after his owner Kia Joorabchian announced that leading juvenile Persian Force (Ire) would be retired to stud, Roger O'Callaghan confirmed that the Group 2-winning speedster would be heading back home to Tally-Ho Stud, where he will stand alongside his father Mehmas (Ire) in 2023.  Tally-Ho snapped up Persian Force at the November Foal Sales at Goffs in 2020 for €75,000 from Ringfort Stud before selling the colt the following year at the Orby Sale to Peter and Ross Doyle for €225,000. Last seen finishing a gallant...