Charlie Bond on Curragh sponsorship: 'The way they treat you on racecourses in Ireland is very good'

Charlie Bond spoke to Niall Tierney of IrishRacing.com about Bond Thoroughbreds, the team's growing operation in Ireland, their sponsorship of Paddy Twomey's yard and the Beresford Stakes at the Curragh, as well as their ambitions for the future.

He also discussed some of the exciting horses to look forward to this season and the stable's hopes of competing at the highest level.

City of Dubai winning a maiden at Killarney this week - It was a very interesting maiden. We were very excited to see him get his head in front. He travelled well. Paddy thought he needed the run, so we thought we'd finish third or fourth, and he won going away pretty well and just got tired late. It was exciting.

Pedigree-wise, he'd look a French Derby type, speaking to Paddy, rather than an Epsom type, but it's nice to dream. There's a long time between now and then.

Concorde Landed winning a maiden at Naas - Yeah, it was super exciting. We got her from the breeze-ups and she recorded the fastest time. She's a late April foal, so we'll try and give her a bit of time, but she's going to develop with her age.

I think she'll go straight to the Lowther, and the time that she showed was very impressive. Someone told me she hit the line at 41 miles per hour and she was being eased down, so that was very exciting to watch.

Transition to Ireland - It's been very enjoyable so far. At Bond Thoroughbreds we use a lot of AI and stats, and Paddy's strike rate came onto our radar. So we made the call to Paddy and we get on extremely well. We actually now sponsor the yard at Paddy's. The prize money in Ireland is a lot better, and Paddy's communication is fantastic. When you're taking on some of the best horses in the world in Ireland, it's where you want to compete, and we want to compete at the top.

On buying horses - Paddy does every sale with me and we try to buy one or two out of every sale, which we feel is the best thing to do. We're always there from that point of view. The AI is a big part of our operation, so it's exciting times for what we're building with our own internal AI, and with Paddy training as well. It's working well.

Ireland - We just struck a deal with the Curragh to sponsor the Beresford Stakes, the mile two-year-old race. It's great to sponsor the Curragh and hopefully we can expand. We find everything so good. The way they treat you on racecourses as well in Ireland is very good. It's completely different to the UK. It's super exciting to link up with Paddy. We've had some good success so far with some exciting two-year-olds, but the most important thing is that we're buying some really nice pedigrees on the fillies' side to go to Maranoa Charlie, who stands at Tally-Ho. We have got to back him really. He's a top-class pedigree by Wootton Bassett. We only have one opportunity with this pedigree, so we want to match him up with some exciting mares.

It's a shame he retired because I feel he'd be unbeaten at this stage, but when Tally-Ho comes knocking, it's for the future really. For Bond Thoroughbreds to have a stallion like that, we won two Group 1s, it was a tremendous day. The whole family was there, and Paddy was there, and it was brilliant for Christopher as well. After we bought him, he ran in three Group 1s and he won one and was second in the other two.

We just want to put my dad's colours back into Group races like we've gone and done. We won Group 3 and Group 1 races last year. We've had a few Group 3 placings this year. We just want to be back at the highest level. The York race, the Lowther, we want to win it. We'll have a couple of fillies in that. The Nunthorpe, the five-furlong Group 1, the big races at the Curragh, it's competing on the top level stage and being competitive. It's not just turning up. We don't send horses just to turn up in these races.