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OKIDOKI all set for tomorrow. Itinerary as follows,
0930 Meeting at Toughers for breakfast.
1100 arrive @ National Stud 1100.
1115 to 1215 Tour National Stud.
1215 to 1300 Irish Racehorse Experience.
1300 Walkaround the Japanese Gardens. (Weather permitting I guess!).
1345 Lunch at Gourmet Goodies in the Japanese Gardens. (see attached menu, if you let me know that you'd like to eat then I will get a place reserved so there is no waiting around).
1500 Optional short run through rural Kildare in a loop from Kildare, through Stradbally and back to Kilcullen where drivers can decide if they want to motorway home or stay on back roads and I'll say goodbye! This drive will take us by the canal a couple of times and through Stradbally which is a lovely village and the approach road has some lovely views. It'll take an hour in total to Kikcullen and it's on nice roads for classic cars.
Couple of Important Notes:
We're going onto the stud itself for parking and photo op and they've asked me to emphasise that we drive slowly and reasonably quietly, there's a plant fair on in the grounds so there may be people and or horses about.
We've agreed the number of cars with them specifically so if someone decides last minute to come along that's great but we're only able now to get the pre arranged cars onto the farm, there is other parking of course and it's safe.
Pay on the day but as a group so single payment in other words. Private Guided Tour €15 plus €5 Irish Racehorse Experience for a total of €20, breakfast, lunch and petrol you're on your own Neddy😄😄.
I think there's been a bit of confusion about this run arising from the fact that it's been labelled on the forum on a post about cancellation. The trip to the national stud is on, the following is moved from the previous post, for clarity. I'd like to be able to give the people at the stud some numbers so we can have our own tour guide organised so could you post a reply by Wednesday if you are going please. Thanks in advance. 😊
So far I believe we have the following with +1s in some cases,
Simon & Karen Tripp.
Dan Riordan.
Gerry Leigh.
Niall Callery.
Bren Fitz.
Sean Connaughton.
Niall Power
Alan Whelan?
In terms of the Saturday visit to the National Stud might take the opportunity to give people a little background. The National Stud is as the name suggests a working stud, created in 1945 it was a brave initiative then, Ireland was probably most famous at that time in terms of producing horses for the British imperial armies so it was an ambitious initiative for the Irish state. Over the years it's morphed into a school as well and now trains thoroughbred experts from all over the world and send Irish youngsters all over the world from their courses and of course it has the very beautiful Japanese gardens attached as well. Stud farms are a bit like show business, they tend to have somewhat cyclical lives in that old rock stars die and new ones come along every year and no one really controls where they are going to pop up, so it's very hard to consistently stay at the top. Coolmore globally is probably the only operation who beats that tendency and even they have fallow times relative to their good times, plus the petrodollar is a big factor and no way would a state owned company (the National Stud is state owned) be allowed to compete with the Arabs for stallions so the National Stud isn't in breeding terms a global force, it has to in the main breed its rock star stallions its not generally in the market to buy them, that's a slower process. So because it completes the full cycle it's in an ideal position to teach people how to work through the full cycle both in business and biological terms, kind of the equivalent of "built not bought" in the classic car world. This year for example a young lady, a student, there from small family owned stud in Germany foaled 300 mares! Almost like a lifetimes experience in that particular area but in one season. They do have some good stallions at the moment, one in particular, stallions are just that Stallions with a capital S, they'll cover 3+ mares a day pretty much every day for the season and earn many millions a piece in the process so one very good one is no small thing for any operation, many studs will have one or two rock stars and a number of support bands so to speak. There is no artificial insemination in Thoroughbred breeding, it's the real thing or nothing so again the rock star analogy is doubly appropriate in that respect, the star personally does the business and no decaf is permitted!
We'll get a guided tour for our group which will definitely be interesting, the gardens are extensive and really beautiful and there is also a modern multimedia show called the Irish Racehorse Experience which we"ll see and as Simon said numbers dependent we"ll be bringing our cars onto the farm and parking at the lake in front of the "workings" so to speak so we should get some nice photos. Worth noting perhaps this is an ideal visit for the non car motivated significant other in your life, if you like🥰There is a nice eatery on site as well and we can take a look at organising something there for brunch or something closer to the time or individually.