From broadcasting to bloodstock for Cathal
A 34-year-old Wexford man has just taken over one of most important posts in the equine world.
CATHAL Beale, who once worked as a broadcaster for Paddy Power, is the new chief executive at the Irish National Stud, one of the world’s leading stud farms.
From Wexford town, Cathal recently took up his new post at the Kildare facility where his bloodstock career began.
Born and reared in John Street, Cathal first started at the stud as a graduate of the 2007 Stud Management Program at the INS.
He also underwent the Darley Flying Start management programme, worked for Paddy Power, the Racing Post, worked at Forenaghts Stud as assistant stud manager and Tinnakill Bloodstock and holds a BA from UCD and Masters in Management from Smurfit Business School.
The board said that given his skillset, Cathal was uniquely qualified for a challenging role.
‘This is a wonderful opportunity and a job I have trained for during my entire career. It’s an exciting challenge and I’m fortunate to be running with the same focused and passionate management team and the same board of directors.
‘I am confident it will be business as usual and look forward to meeting clients both old and new in the near future,’ said Cathal, who has taken over the top job from John Osborne.
Cathal, the son of Tony and Liz Beale, is married to Sarah nee Murphy and has a little boy, Charlie.
He was educated at the CBS Primary and the St Peter’s in Wexford before going to college on a degree course.
Cathal worked for Paddy Power for two years as a broadcaster before starting work with Michael and Mary Murphy, from Clohamon Stud, in Bunclody, and then at Enniscorthy-based Redmondstown Stud, with Ken Bolger.
He said his flying start programme took him to Darcel facilities all around the world, to the UK, Australia, the USA, Dubai and New Zealand, where he was placed with leading stud farms, including Haunui in Auckland.
Speaking to this newspaper, Cathal said he was loving the job which he described as a huge challenge.
‘It’s a great honour to be following in the footsteps of John Osbourne. He did a great job and I’m looking to it forward to the next seven years.
‘I’ll be trying to find the next Invincible Spirit,’ he said, referring to one of the most famous horses bred at the INS.
‘There’s lots of stuff in the pipeline, but nothing definite at the moment, so the search continues,’ he said.
Cathal said he was probably one of the youngest, if not the youngest, chief executives in the history of the stud and made the point that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was a young man too.
He said that apart from furthering the prowess of the stud as a breeder of top bloodstock, he was keen to do more to develop the INS as a top-notch tourism facility.
‘It’s only 90 minutes away and there’s a lot of stuff for families. We’re definitely going to invest in it and the overall strategy is to diversify a little.. to add more elements to it,’ he said.