John Magnier (born 10 February 1948; also known as "The Boss") is an Irish

business magnate A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through per ...

. He is Ireland's leading

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

stud owner and has extensive business interests outside the horse-breeding industry. Magnier has also been a Senator in the upper house of the Irish Parliament,

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

. He is based at

Coolmore Stud Coolmore Stud, in Fethard, County Tipperary, Ireland, is headquarters of the world's largest breeding operation of thoroughbred racehorses. Through its racing arm, Ballydoyle, Coolmore also has raced many classic winners and champions. The operat ...

at Fethard in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after ...

, considered one of the world's pre-eminent stallion stations, and a nursery of thoroughbreds.

Career

Origins

Magnier was born in

Fermoy Fermoy () is a town on the River Blackwater in east County Cork, Ireland. As of the 2016 census, the town and environs had a population of approximately 6,500 people. It is located in the barony of Condons and Clangibbon, and is in the Dá ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

, the eldest son of Thomas Magnier (died 1962) a County Cork landowner (son of Michael Joseph Magnier of The Manor House, Fermoy, County Cork) by his wife Evelyn Margaret Hallinan (born 1925), the younger daughter of Major Thomas Francis Dennehy Hallinan of Ashbourne, Glounthaune, County Cork. His aunt Mary Elizabeth Hallinan married

Rupert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton (Joseph) Rupert Eric Robert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton (22 January 1924 – 8 August 2003), DL, of Houghton Hall in the parish of Sancton, Yorkshire, was a British soldier, landowner and racehorse owner who served as Senior Steward of the Jo ...

, Senior Steward of the

Jockey Club The Jockey Club is the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the United Kingdom. It owns 15 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and both the Rowley Mile and July Course in Newmarket, a ...

1982–85, effectively the chief executive of the British horse racing industry.

Early life

Magnier received his formal education at

Glenstal Abbey Glenstal Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of the Annunciation located in Murroe, County Limerick, Ireland. It is dedicated to Saint Joseph and Saint Columba. The current abbot of the monastery is Brendan Cof ...

County Limerick "Remember Limerick" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Ireland, Province , subd ...

but had to leave school at 15 to take charge of the family estate near Fermoy after his father died.

Coolmore

Magnier later moved to Fethard,

, where he transformed

into a multi-million-euro international business. The business is headquartered in County Tipperary where a number of other stud farms are part of an extensive network which includes Longfield and Castlehyde studs. The operation also has branches in

Versailles, Kentucky Versailles () is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. It lies by road west of Lexington and is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. Versailles has a population of 9,316 according to 2017 cen ...

and at

Jerrys Plains, New South Wales Jerrys Plains is a village in the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia about 33 kilometres west of Singleton on the Golden Highway. The surrounding countryside is home to some substantial horse-breeding properties, notably the Australian ...

, Australia. Magnier began his association with Coolmore in partnership with his father-in-law and champion racehorse trainer,

Vincent O'Brien Vincent O'Brien (9 April 1917 – 1 June 2009) was an Irish race horse trainer from Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland. In 2003 he was voted the greatest influence in horse racing history in a worldwide poll hosted by the ''Racing Post''. In ...

, and Vernon's Pools magnate,

Robert Sangster Robert Edmund Sangster (23 May 1936 – 7 April 2004)

. They developed the best racing horses and breeding stock, mainly by purchasing the progeny of the great Canadian stallion Northern Dancer. Their forays to the bloodstock auctions at

Keeneland Sales Keeneland Sales is an American Thoroughbred auction house in Lexington, Kentucky founded in 1935 as a nonprofit racing/auction entity on 147 acres (0.59 km2) of farmland west of Lexington, which had been owned by Jack O. Keene. A division of ...

furthered their rising stock at home. Eventually, Magnier came to head the operation and thus began an upward spiral of success. His racing empire, which became arguably the most successful on the planet, is nowadays powered by a huge string of blue-blooded thoroughbreds trained at

Ballydoyle Ballydoyle is a racehorse training facility located in County Tipperary in Ireland. It is a sister thoroughbred facility to Coolmore Stud, and both are owned by John Magnier, son in law to the racehorse trainer Vincent O'Brien. The current tra ...

Aidan O'Brien Aidan Patrick O'Brien (born 16 October 1969 in County Wexford, Ireland) Aidan O'Brien bio NTRA. ...

, plus dozens of others in the care of a number of other trainers. Champion sires to have stood at Coolmore include the incomparable

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...

who was leading sire (by prizemoney won) in Great Britain and Ireland in 14 of the 15 years between 1990 and 2004, though his success in his later years was somewhat eclipsed by the astonishing exploits of three other Coolmore stallions, namely Danehill and his own sons

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

and Montjeu. Other notable Group 1 winners who have turned successfully to stud duties are

Danehill Dancer Danehill Dancer was a bay horse bred by L. K. and K. McCreery and foaled on 20 January 1993. He was sired by Danehill, who won the Haydock Sprint Cup in 1989. Danehill Dancer's dam is Mira Adonde, a daughter of Sharpen Up. Mira Adonde was tra ...

Giant's Causeway The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (5 km) northeast of ...

, and

Epsom Derby The Derby Stakes, also known as the Epsom Derby or the Derby, and as the Cazoo Derby for sponsorship reasons, is a Group 1 flat horse race in England open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surre ...

winner

High Chaparral High Chaparral (1 March 1999 – 21 December 2014) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from September 2001 to October 2003, he ran 13 times and won 10 races. His win in the Racing Post Trophy made him one ...

. Less successful at Coolmore was

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

, winner of the 2,000 Guineas and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in 2006. George Washington proved infertile, was returned to racing, and suffered a fatal breakdown in the 2007

Breeders' Cup Classic The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-olds and older run at a distance of on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships in late October ...

. George Washington was replaced at stud by another son of Danehill,

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

, removed from training at the start of his three-year-old season. The strength of thoroughbred talent residing at Coolmore is indicated by the fact that eleven of the fifteen winners of the blue riband of the turf, The Derby, between 1998 and 2012 were sired by Coolmore stallions (High Estate, Fairy King, Grand Lodge, Sadler's Wells (two), Danehill, Montjeu (four) and Galileo).

Other business ventures

Outside the equine business, Magnier has proven to be an astute investor and together with associates J. P. McManus,

Dermot Desmond Dermot Desmond (born 14 August 1950) is an Irish businessman and financier. He is estimated to be worth €2.04 billion and is ranked by the ''Sunday Independent'' as the ninth-richest person in Ireland. Early life and education Desmond was b ...

, Joe Lewis,

Michael Tabor Michael Barry Tabor (born 28 October 1941) is a British businessman, bookmaker, gambler and owner of thoroughbred racehorses. Tabor regularly appears on the ''Sunday Times Rich List'' of the richest people in Britain. In 2012 his fortune w ...

and Derrick Smith has enjoyed phenomenal success. A high-profile venture was his stake of 28.89 per cent shareholding in football club

Manchester United F.C. Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd), or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, ...

, which was sold in May 2005 to

Malcolm Glazer Malcolm Irving Glazer (August 15, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American businessman and sports team owner. He was the president and chief executive officer of First Allied Corporation, a holding company for his varied business interests, ...

, an American businessman. A friendship with manager

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time ...

was tested in a dispute over bloodstock rights to prolific Group 1 winner (seven wins)

Rock of Gibraltar The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabel-al-Tariq) is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and near the entrance to the Medite ...

which currently stands at Coolmore.

Wealth

Magnier is said to be the most influential man in horse racing and breeding worldwide, even over Sheikh

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( ar, محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم, links=no; ; born 15 July 1949) is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai ...

. While Magnier's fortune is in the realms of speculation, '' The Sunday Independent'' estimated his wealth at €2.3 billion in 2018, although this is conservative as

is valued at more than €4 billion alone, in addition to his personal property portfolio and other investments and holdings.

Personal life

He is married to Susan O'Brien, a daughter of Irish racehorse-trainer

. The couple have five children.

References

External links

Coolmore Stud

"Magnier – The secretive tycoon" BBC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnier, John 1948 births Living people Irish racehorse owners and breeders Owners of Epsom Derby winners Manchester United F.C. directors and chairmen Independent members of Seanad Éireann Members of the 18th Seanad Businesspeople from County Cork Nominated members of Seanad Éireann People from Fermoy Owners of Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winners