international / 30.07.2022

Michael Donohoe (BBA Ireland) recently gave a very interesting interview Irish Field. For more than ten years, he has worked with the buyer, Zhang Yusheng Txope (Sioni) €1,200,000 at the Arkhana Summer Sale.

In an interview with Ronan Groome, Michael Donohoe explains: “I got to know Zhang Yusheng through Michael O’Hagan and Carolyn Kennedy, who were working at ITM at the time. [le FRBC irlandais, ndlr] He was doing a great job in China. It was about getting on board to find new customers and new markets. Patrick Cooper and Declan Quarry, who work at BBA, gave me carte blanche by buying me plane tickets. I traveled a lot in China and that’s how I met Mr. Yusheng. The first horses I bought for him at the Go for Gold sale in Goresbridge were actually eventing horses. A sale organized by my family. Zhang Yusheng was certainly prominent in show jumping and eventing at the time. Two sports he tried to develop in his country. This first purchase was wearing China’s colors at the Asian Games…” A self-made man from Shaanxi province – now a billionaire. After a period in equestrian sports, he decided to move into racing, studying the financial situation of horse racing fields around the world. Although he continued to support the development of horse racing in China, he decided that Australia was the right place to invest and set up his stud farm, Yulong Farm. It is the largest in the state of Victoria, with no fewer than 600 mares, some of which were purchased from Europe. And love the stallions Written by Tycoon (Iglesia), the player (Lord Kanaloa), Alabama Express (Redout’s Choice), grunt (O’Reilly) and Lucky Vega (Lope Devega). This winner of the Phoenix Stakes (Gr1) is doing a double season in Ireland (at the Irish National Stud).

Recently, it was bought by Michael Donohoe and Zhang Yusheng Magical Lagoon (Galileo), winner of last Juddmonte Irish Oaks (Gr1). At the October 2020 sale at Tattersalls, Michael Donohoe signed a €305,000 voucher for Zhang Yusheng: “It didn’t bother me at all that Coolmore sold it. They have a lot Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and good mare that can’t keep everything. Finally like all breeders. It’s the buyer’s judgment against theirs. Each horse has a certain value. And it’s the buyer who has to line up. I put the auction out. And there was someone inside them. I stood up to €300,000 and when the hammer was about to fall, I bid €305,000…”