Saturday, 21 November 2009: Billy McDonald, who sourced the dual Arc winner Alleged for Robert Sangster as an unraced two-year-old and bought the dam of Sadler's Wells as a yearling, passed away on Wednesday night at his home in Northern Ireland. He was 65.
On Thursday, he was remembered as one of the most colourful personalities ever to grace a sale ring with trainer John Gosden saying: "There will never be another Billy. He was one of the great characters of the game.
"He had a great eye for a horse and he lived life to the full. He was also a talented pony rider in his youth and a fast runner both into and out of trouble. He was an immensely popular man who was greatly at easein watering holes, restaurants and racecourses around the world."
Bob Lanigan, owner of Tullamaine Castle Stud and a long-time associate of McDonald, said: "Billy described himself as the 'purveyor of champions to multi-millionaires,' and he certainly was that. He was a wonderful, larger than life character."
His views were echoed by Elaine 'Legs' Lawlor, who said: "Everybody loved Billy, from Frank Sinatra to Roger Moore. Hewas very entertaining and he was a great man for attracting new people to the industry. We'll miss him very much."
Originally from Ballynahinch in Northern Ireland, McDonald spent much of his life in California, where he made hisname as a dealer in Rolls-Royces - "he's still in the Guinness Book of Records for selling most Rolls-Royces in a day," Gosden said on Thursday.
Once he moved into racing, however, McDonald's skill in selecting potential athletes also saw him leave a lasting contribution to the sport.
In the spring of 1976, McDonald discovered an unraced Hoist The Flag two-year-old colt who was owned by Monty Roberts and preparing for a breeze up sale in California. The colt had been unsold at $34,000 as a yearling at the previous year's Keeneland July Sale, but McDonald urged his great friend, Robert Sangster, to purchase him privately for $120,000.
Sangster named the colt Alleged, and believing that the colt's questionable knees would stand up to training in Europe better than the rigours of California, sent him to be trained by Vincent O'Brien in Ireland where he won nine races including consecutive runnings of the Arc.
McDonald was also a member of the team that assisted Vincent O'Brien, John Magnier and Robert Sangster at the Keeneland sales during a time when their spending power was almost unmatched. Yet it was through the purchase of a filly by Bold Reason that cost just $40,000 which saw him leave an indelible mark on the industry, as Magnier recalled in an acceptance speech at the 2005 Cartier Awards:
"One year during the July Sales at Keeneland, I was on the way to breakfast one morning through the bar at the old Hyatt and I spotted Billy McDonald's catalogue in the trash can. Inside the catalogue was a pass-out for a filly that he'd bought the day before. He'd paid $40,000 for her, and there wasn't a lot of her there. As luck would have it again she turned out to be champion two-year-old filly Fairy Bridge.
"I learned afterwards that Billy had given a $100 bill at Claiborne to the yearling manager Gus Koch - obviously a turned-on guy - to find out his pick of the draft and he said a little Bold Reason filly was the fastest in the paddock, it was obviously money well spent. Fairy Bridge's first visit to Northern Dancer at Windfields resulted, as luck would have it, in Sadler's Wells."
McDonald spent many years living in Los Angeles, during which time he became good friends with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Albert Finney and Pierce Brosnan. It was through McDonald that Brosnan became involved with Bob Lanigan on a mare named Salidar, who later became the dam of the Classic-placed Bin Ajwaad.
A notable charmer, McDonald was said to have been engaged seven times. He married Suzy Park in 1994 but divorced in 1996. They had no children.
