The inaugural ITM Irish Stallion Trail, held from Thursday 22nd to Saturday 24th January attracted over 2000 people to 24 Irish stud farms around the country.
The studs saw it as an opportunity to sell nominations, promote their stallions and to open up the bloodstock industry to domestic and international visitors.
These included parties from the UK, China, Japan, France, Czech Republic and Sweden.
Major international stud farms on the trail included Coolmore, Kildangan and the Irish National Stud who stand Europe's 2014 leading sires Galileo, Shamardal and Invincible Spirit respectively.
Maurice Moloney of Coolmore Stud said of the initiative: "We are delighted with the trail, there was very positive feedback from everyone. As an industry, it is important to make it more accessible to the racing public."
Kildangan Stud, and Darley's Managing Director Joe Osborne said: "We are delighted with the success of the ITM Stallion Trail and commend ITM on a great job promoting the initiative. We had more than 650 visitors over the three days and it was a good mix of breeders and enthusiasts. It was encouraging so many overseas visitors taking part in the Trail."
Madeline Burns of Rathasker Stud added "ITM targeted racehorse owners and quite a few with fillies bought nominations. We also had a few who came to see the stallions ahead of the yearling sales."
Charles O'Neill, CEO of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, said: "The inaugural ITM Irish Stallion Trail was a great success and ITM would like to thank all the stud owners and their teams for making it such a memorable event for owners, breeders, and racing enthusiasts. The Irish bloodstock industry is one of the best in the world, employs over 14,000 and contributes over €1 billion annually to the Irish economy. Work will start immediately on the ITM Irish Stallion Trail 2016."
