Billionaire Eamon Cleary Invests in Polo Stud in Buenos Aires

$2.0 billion

Best known for his heavy involvement in the growth of the dairy industry in Southland and Central Otago since the early 1990s, this Irish Kiwi is more enamoured of horses these days.

Based in Malta and running his global agribusiness empire without a corporate office, Eamon Cleary is investing in a big 485ha state-of the-art thoroughbred and polo pony stud near Buenos Aires in Argentina, where he also has property interests, including a shopping mall development.

But his biggest thrill was earlier this year at the Karaka sales, when he paid $300,000 for a chestnut filly. Not just any filly but one with a direct line back to a mare that sold for $US14.5 million at the Lexington, Kentucky, sales last November.

The filly is destined to become what is known as a Blue Hen – a brood mare that produces high-quality foals regardless of the sire’s pedigree. Cleary spotted the filly’s classic breeding lines because he was at the Lexington sale. The filly was owned by fellow Rich Listers Peter and Phillip Vela and was out of Ireland’s Silver and Roses from the Australian sire Pins.

“Both sides of the filly’s family have the genetics that go to create a Blue Hen mare,” Mr Cleary says.

He now makes less frequent trips to New Zealand, usually coinciding with the peak of the racing season to see some of his runners, but keeps a close eye on his dairy farms and commercial property portfolio.

He funds a chair in Irish studies at the University of Otago.

The chair was officially launched in 2007 during the visit of Irish President Mary McAleese, who also received an honorary doctorate of laws from the university.

Cleary’s idiosyncratic approach to business enables him to run a global business without a corporate structure, headquarters or executive management team. All this slightly built and softly spoken man needs is a phone and secretaries to do his typing and a range of support staff on a per-project basis as and when necessary.

Cleary’s can-do approach to development brought him into conflict with some locals in the Central Lakes area, not to mention the Resource Management Act. He sold some historic cottages in Arrowtown to the council and last year lost a Court of Appeal case involving his Big River Paradise housing development at Wanaka. The High Court had effectively prevented the Cleary property, which is on the north bank of the Clutha River, from being divided into more than three allotments with one house on each. Cleary turned to Plan B, renamed his property Pork Paradise Farm and started a pig farm.

$2.0 billion

Best known for his heavy involvement in the growth of the dairy industry in Southland and Central Otago since the early 1990s, this Irish Kiwi is more enamoured of horses these days.

Based in Malta and running his global agribusiness empire without a corporate office, Eamon Cleary is investing in a big 485ha state-of the-art thoroughbred and polo pony stud near Buenos Aires in Argentina, where he also has property interests, including a shopping mall development.

But his biggest thrill was earlier this year at the Karaka sales, when he paid $300,000 for a chestnut filly. Not just any filly but one with a direct line back to a mare that sold for $US14.5 million at the Lexington, Kentucky, sales last November.

The filly is destined to become what is known as a Blue Hen – a brood mare that produces high-quality foals regardless of the sire’s pedigree. Cleary spotted the filly’s classic breeding lines because he was at the Lexington sale. The filly was owned by fellow Rich Listers Peter and Phillip Vela and was out of Ireland’s Silver and Roses from the Australian sire Pins.

“Both sides of the filly’s family have the genetics that go to create a Blue Hen mare,” Mr Cleary says.

He now makes less frequent trips to New Zealand, usually coinciding with the peak of the racing season to see some of his runners, but keeps a close eye on his dairy farms and commercial property portfolio.

He funds a chair in Irish studies at the University of Otago.

The chair was officially launched in 2007 during the visit of Irish President Mary McAleese, who also received an honorary doctorate of laws from the university.

Cleary’s idiosyncratic approach to business enables him to run a global business without a corporate structure, headquarters or executive management team. All this slightly built and softly spoken man needs is a phone and secretaries to do his typing and a range of support staff on a per-project basis as and when necessary.

Cleary’s can-do approach to development brought him into conflict with some locals in the Central Lakes area, not to mention the Resource Management Act. He sold some historic cottages in Arrowtown to the council and last year lost a Court of Appeal case involving his Big River Paradise housing development at Wanaka. The High Court had effectively prevented the Cleary property, which is on the north bank of the Clutha River, from being divided into more than three allotments with one house on each. Cleary turned to Plan B, renamed his property Pork Paradise Farm and started a pig farm.

$2.0 billion

Best known for his heavy involvement in the growth of the dairy industry in Southland and Central Otago since the early 1990s, this Irish Kiwi is more enamoured of horses these days.

Based in Malta and running his global agribusiness empire without a corporate office, Eamon Cleary is investing in a big 485ha state-of the-art thoroughbred and polo pony stud near Buenos Aires in Argentina, where he also has property interests, including a shopping mall development.

But his biggest thrill was earlier this year at the Karaka sales, when he paid $300,000 for a chestnut filly. Not just any filly but one with a direct line back to a mare that sold for $US14.5 million at the Lexington, Kentucky, sales last November.

The filly is destined to become what is known as a Blue Hen – a brood mare that produces high-quality foals regardless of the sire’s pedigree. Cleary spotted the filly’s classic breeding lines because he was at the Lexington sale. The filly was owned by fellow Rich Listers Peter and Phillip Vela and was out of Ireland’s Silver and Roses from the Australian sire Pins.

“Both sides of the filly’s family have the genetics that go to create a Blue Hen mare,” Mr Cleary says.

He now makes less frequent trips to New Zealand, usually coinciding with the peak of the racing season to see some of his runners, but keeps a close eye on his dairy farms and commercial property portfolio.

He funds a chair in Irish studies at the University of Otago.

The chair was officially launched in 2007 during the visit of Irish President Mary McAleese, who also received an honorary doctorate of laws from the university.

Cleary’s idiosyncratic approach to business enables him to run a global business without a corporate structure, headquarters or executive management team. All this slightly built and softly spoken man needs is a phone and secretaries to do his typing and a range of support staff on a per-project basis as and when necessary.

Cleary’s can-do approach to development brought him into conflict with some locals in the Central Lakes area, not to mention the Resource Management Act. He sold some historic cottages in Arrowtown to the council and last year lost a Court of Appeal case involving his Big River Paradise housing development at Wanaka. The High Court had effectively prevented the Cleary property, which is on the north bank of the Clutha River, from being divided into more than three allotments with one house on each. Cleary turned to Plan B, renamed his property Pork Paradise Farm and started a pig farm.