Enhanced offering at Killisk Farm to target local breeders

County Wexford may currently be home to a thriving portion of the point-to-point sphere, but Nickey and Niamh Murphy are hoping to extend that to the breeding sector with their burgeoning operation serving breeders in the south east of the country.

Their Killisk Farm outside of Enniscorthy is still a relatively new player on the scene. For Nickey, getting into the stallion business has been a long-held ambition.

“When I left school I went to work for Ger and Sadie Murphy, they had show horses, point-to-pointers, and they stood a few stallions,” he explained. “I enjoyed the stallions and handling stallions in general. 

“Then I worked for a few other point-to-point handlers, and then I went up to a place in Arklow that stood draught stallions. I really enjoyed it, and probably had it in my head that it was something that I really wanted to.

“I left horses completely, and went off selling cars for ten years, and then when we bought the house that we are currently in, and we had land and an opportunity, I wanted to get back into it. 

“I knew I was probably never going to be light enough to get back riding point-to-pointers, and we wouldn’t have enough land to have mares, so it left standing stallions as the road to go down.” 

Mores Wells, a multiple Group 3 winner during his racing career, was selected as the stallion around whom the foundations of the burgeoning operation would be built. However, it was not long before tragedy struck.

“I got Mores Wells in 2024 from James and Ian Hannon,” he said. “That was good, I had a great relationship with them. They answered lots of questions and got us up and running. 

“A friend of mine, Simon Bisansan, got in contact with March Hare Stud, and that also led to Tip To Win coming over.

“We decided to launch as Killisk Farm and said that he would go at it as best we could. It is hard to get the name out there, to let people know that you are standing these stallions, and get people to come to you when you are starting fresh. You have no following or a list of people to ring. 

“We had a lot of interest last year in both Mores Wells and Tip To Win, but we lost Mores Wells in a paddock accident not long into the season. 

“He broke his back in the paddock. That was devastating. We had mares booked into him, and we were going to cover a few of ours. We thought that he was going to be around for years after getting us going. That was tough. 

Murphy was adamant not to let the setback derail his ambitions, at such an early juncture of their journey, with plans soon put in place to add to their stallion offering.

“Coming towards the end of the season, the place didn’t really feel right, only having the one stallion, so we were fairly certain that we were going to take on another one,” he explained. 

“We put the feelers out to see where we would get another, who would we contact, how does it work, which was a complete unknown to us.

“We rang everyone there was to ring. We started talking to lots of people about lots of different stallions. Pillar Coral and Racinger happened to be the ones that worked out. We were delighted to get them, and we are thrilled to stand them going into 2026.

“Maybe the knock of losing Moores Well, in one sense, has probably sped up how far we are going to push in 2026.”

The arrival of Pillar Coral from Kilbarry Lodge Stud follows hot on the heels of Coastal Path’s half-brother siring his initial winners between the flags last season.

In all, Pillar Coral was responsible for four individual winners last season, including four-year-old maiden success of Rosa Diaz at Boulta for Tipperary handler Pat Doyle.

“Pillar Coral is an 11-year-old horse, he is from a very influential family. I think Con [O’Keeffe] has done a lot of the hard work with him,” Murphy said.

“He has covered a nice few books of mares to start with, and Con would have covered nice mares with him. They have been well received in the sales, and I think that it is all set to happen for him.

“He is breeding lovely, big stock. I think his stock were bought on their looks, and they have went on and done the business for him. We are very lucky to have got him at the age that he is, and after the work that Con has put into him to get to this point. 

“Anyone who has come to the yard to have a look at him. He has so much presence, his is an amazing horse in person. I think he will go well, and we’re looking forward to the stallion trail to get him into the yard to see him. 

The high-class miler, Racinger, has already produced the likes of the dual Grade 2 winner Farouk d’Alene, and Grade 3 victor, El Barra, from his time standing in France, and brings a proven track record to Killisk Farm.

“I think if someone is a bit unsure of covering with a young horse, Racinger is an option of a stallion that has been there and proven himself. He has graded winners; he won four Group races over a mile. He is a bit different, but his there to inject a bit of speed into pedigrees. 

“Tip To Win is there mainly for the flat, but I think if there were a few chancey national hunt men with big old national hunt pedigrees, he could be a right one there to throw a bit of speed and class into them. 
With such a varied offering, Murphy is hoping that his value offering will prove to be a hit among local breeders.

“I think we have something for everyone now, let it be a flat man or national hunt man, there is something to offer everyone,” he added.

“There are loads of local breeders, and small breeders around us, and I think that’s who we are appealing to. The horses are priced so that they are achievable. They are small money, but they are backed up by their performance and their bloodline.

“It’s the small breeders around Wexford that we would love to be supporting and would love to have supporting us. We are very much aware we are not one of the big operators, but I think we have exceptional horses for small, local breeders, and I think they would be mad to pass us.”