Twilight Payment’s Melbourne Cup win marks milestone for Kerr & Co
Bert Kerr was planning to mark the centenary of his bloodstock agency this year with a number of special events, including a race sponsorship and a reception, but the Covid-19 outbreak put paid to all that.
No matter, though, as Kerr & Co Ltd received the best possible birthday present by way of compensation, as its purchase Twilight Payment won one of the world’s great races, the Melbourne Cup.
Kerr & Co Ltd, the oldest bloodstock agency still in operation anywhere in the world, was founded in 1920 by Kerr’s uncle and namesake, a legendary figure in the thoroughbred industry who led an extraordinary life — all the more so considering he was born into a family with little or no connection with horses.
Born in Dublin in 1896, Kerr played football for Dublin club Bohemians in his youth and captained the Irish team at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
An unusual CV for a leading bloodstock agent, then, but the seeds of his chosen career were sown when he accompanied his father on business trips to the Curragh to visit trainers whose tax affairs he oversaw.
“Bert was only a lad of about ten, but he was fascinated by the whole world of racing,” says his nephew. “One night on the Curragh, when it was time to leave, young Bert couldn’t be located anywhere, so his father headed on and asked his hosts to send the boy home when he was found.
“They eventually discovered him in a stable with one of the horses, asleep on the straw in the corner, and he was put on the old milk train to Dublin early the following morning. That was the start of a love affair that blossomed into him becoming one of the most respected agents in the world.”
After working with an insurance broker for a short period, Kerr established his own agency in 1920, providing a wide range of services including insurance and shipping.
His big break came in the mid-1920s when he sold Jack Joel his three-time Nunthorpe winner Tag End, prompting Joel to ask the agent to identify horses suitable to race in his native South Africa, which Kerr duly did with great success.
The business grew on the strength of strong results and word of mouth and by the 1930s he had built large customer bases in South Africa, India, Singapore and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. He also forged links in Australia and New Zealand, and in the middle of that decade his brothers Desmond (father of Bert jnr), Fergus and Kevin joined the agency – Desmond to manage the insurance services, Fergus to oversee the breeding side, and Kevin, a qualified vet and another former player for Bohemians, to run the racing stable.
“After the war Bert bought a property outside of Dublin, Summerseat Stables, where I grew up,” says Kerr jnr. “It was a great shop window for the agency. Any yearlings who had been bought and weren’t immediately traded on were broken in there and trained, often being sold on after they had won.”
Among the best horses trained by Kevin for his brother Bert were Irish 2,000 Guineas and Irish St Leger hero Sea Charger and another Irish 2,000 Guineas winner in Green Banner. They carried red and black silks inspired by the Bohemians’ team strip.
The 1940s brought the most significant deal of Bert Kerr’s career, one that also proved extremely influential in pedigrees on either side of the Atlantic.
“When I was a kid and used to ask him which was the best horse he’d ever bought, he’d always say Nasrullah,” says Kerr jnr. “Bert got a lot of publicity for it and it proved a landmark in his career.”
Taking up the story of how Kerr came to trade the Aga Khan’s brilliant but temperamental racehorse-turned-champion sire, he continues: “It was 1944 and the Aga Khan was keen to get his assets out of France, so one night at the Dolphin Hotel in Dublin, where the great and the good all gathered after racing, Gerald McElligott, then the BBA’s representative in Ireland, asked Bert if he would stand in on a horse with him. As soon as Bert found out it was Nasrullah, he was in.
“They rode their bikes to the General Post Office, which was open all night during the war, and drafted a telegram to the Aga Khan that read: ‘Will buy Nasrullah 15,000’. The deal was done.
“Bert and Gerald owned Nasrullah in partnership and kept him for a number of weeks, when leading owner Joe McGrath showed interest and came in for the horse. The sale to McGrath was agreed over a coffee in Bewley’s cafe on Westmoreland Street and the rest is history.”
Nasrullah initially stood at Brownstown Stud in County Kildare and was crowned Britain and Ireland’s champion sire of 1951, the year in which his son Never Say Die landed the Derby. He was later sold to Bull Hancock and stood at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, delivering McGrath a handsome profit, and he topped the North American sire lists on five occasions and left influential sire sons Bold Ruler, Nashua, Never Bend, Red God and so on.
Kerr enjoyed considerable reflected glory through Nasrullah’s exploits, and gained lucrative new contacts. His list of clients in the US included Hollywood director Raoul Walsh and Texas oilman Fred Turner jnr, and it was for the latter that he bought the Kentucky Derby winner Tomy Lee.
“Bert had an order from Turner to buy one particular foal at the December sales at Tattersalls in 1956, but Bert saw the horse in question and didn’t think much of him, and told Turner as much,” Kerr jnr relates.
“So Turner asked if he saw any he did like, and Bert replied that he had seen one by Tudor Minstrel. Turner said to buy him, and Bert did so, for 2,800gns. He stayed on our farm for a while before going to the US, where he won the Del Mar Futurity at two and the Kentucky Derby at three.”
The Kerr family were huddled around a radiogram in their Dublin home that day in May 1959, listening to the American Forces Network’s commentary from Churchill Downs.
“Tomy Lee was neck and neck up the stretch with Sword Dancer and just at that point the signal dropped, and we didn’t know if he’d won or been beaten,” says Kerr jnr. “Next thing the phone rang, and it was Raoul Walsh to say we’d got it.
“The family was shell-shocked, it was a major achievement and in fact Bert remains the only agent to have purchased a Kentucky Derby winner at public auction in Europe. When I worked in Kentucky some years later I went out to see Tomy Lee at stud and got a picture of myself with him. I brought it back home to show Bert and he was chuffed.”
You could fill a book with all the important horses bought by the Kerr agency, but space dictates that only brief mention can be given to the purchase of 1972 Prix du Jockey Club hero Hard To Beat; the selection of Classic winners Garden State, Lucero and Talgo within an hour of each other at the same yearling sale in Ballsbridge; and the sale to Japan of seven-time champion sire Hindostan.
Asked what he thinks was the key to Kerr’s success, his nephew replies: “He just had a gift, similar to Vincent O’Brien and Aidan O’Brien. I don’t think he had any hard and fast rules for buying a horse but, reading through his letters, the message that’s constantly repeated down the decades is that he looked for clean, sound limbs and a good, loose walk. Some horses just have a swagger and marvellous freedom of movement in their shoulders and hocks.”
Kerr snr certainly did not make it easy to copy his success, as his catalogue notes were notorious for being illegible scrawls. Such was the esteem in which he was held as a judge of horses that, following his death in 1973, industry titan Captain Tim Rogers and esteemed bloodstock journalist Tony Morris were among those who requested one of his catalogues for their personal collections of thoroughbred memorabilia.
For many years Tattersalls also paid a small but touching tribute to Kerr.
“Bert always positioned himself to the left of the auctioneer and after so many years Tattersalls decided to put two chairs there – one for Bert and one for his great friend Paddy Lenihan, who always came to the sales with him,” says Kerr jnr.
“Bert would sit there and not move, with sandwiches and drinks brought to him. He immersed himself in the sale, taking notes on all the horses and bidding on the ones he liked. That’s how he managed to buy so many.
“The chairs remained there for three or four years after his death and Sir Mark Prescott asked me recently whatever happened to them. Everyone always knew where to find Bertie, he remembered, and no one else dared sit on them!”
Kerr jnr has upheld his uncle’s honour, maintaining almost all the fruitful international relations that the business built up in the previous century and expanding into emerging markets. Among the top horses bought by the agency are Hong Kong horse of the year Mr Medici and this year’s Slovakian Derby winner and Italian Classic-placed Troop Commander, both private purchases out of Kevin Prendergast’s yard.
He also broke new ground for Kerr & Co Ltd with his trade of Twilight Payment.
“I’d been tracking the horse for a long time, as I thought he would suit Australia and I have good connections down there,” says Kerr, who signed for the son of Teofilo at €200,000 at a Goffs horses in training sale in November 2018.
“Jim Bolger asked me to broker the deal to buy out his partners and then asked me to place him in Australia, but many potential buyers thought he was one year too old at the age of six. Next thing, Lloyd Williams came in for him and he transferred to Joseph O’Brien.
“The horse is a true champion, having travelled between hemispheres and maintained his best form, culminating in his great Melbourne Cup victory.”
Naturally, Kerr jnr is immensely proud of keeping the name Kerr & Co Ltd in lights, a feeling shared by all members of his family, particularly daughter Anna, who chose a career in the industry and is currently serving as chief operating officer of the National Stud in Newmarket.
“After we had our 75th anniversary celebrations in 1995 I decided that getting to the 100th would be the ambition, and I’ve done that,” says Kerr. “I felt it was my destiny to bring the company this far, in recognition of what Bert started and my father and uncles continued after his death.”
Summing up his Uncle Bert’s contribution to the industry he adds: “He was a unique character and as the agency reaches the close of its centenary year, that remains his true legacy.”