Pat Costello

Paddy Campion has joined Paramount Sales, the operation announced Wednesday. Campion, who grew up on Dundrum Farm near Midway, Kentucky, graduated with a dual degree in Accounting and Spanish from the University of Kentucky in 2020. After University, Campion completed the Irish National Stud course in Co. Kildare, Ireland. Campion said, "Since graduation, I've held a role where I was able to use my Spanish in a business setting and also had the opportunity to get some skin in the game doing a couple of pinhooks and having a small...

A colt by Twirling Candy broke clear of the pack when selling for $925,000 to Jim and Dana Bernhard's Pin Oak Stud during an otherwise steadily consistent conclusion to the Book 4 section of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale Tuesday in Lexington. Through both sessions of Book 4, Keeneland sold 606 yearlings for $46,078,000. The book average of $76,036 declined 5.0% from last year, while the median dipped 8.3% to $55,000. During last year's Book 4 section, 609 yearlings sold for $48,726,500. The section's average was $80,011 and the median...

The inaugural golf tournament fundraiser for the Gerry Dilger Equine Scholarship Foundation was held Oct. 10 at Houston Oaks Golf Course and was a tremendous success. On behalf of our board, and the Dilger Family, we would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who helped to make this first fundraiser happen. It was great to see so many people come out. We had wonderful support from the equine community. A very special thank you to Ashford Stud, Eddie Woods, Fasig Tipton, Garrett O'Rourke, Hagyards Equine Medical Institute,...

   Paramount Sales has fast become one of the leading consignors in America with Jack Christopher, Life Is Good and Kameko an example of the recent graduates. Pat Costello, who emigrated to America in 1984 and climbed the ranks in the industry before setting up Paramount Sales in 2001 with fellow Irish ex-pat Gabriel 'Spider' Duignan, shares all about his racing backstory in this week's Q&A.    From turning a profit pinhooking for 10 years on the trot to revealing what horses in the Paramount Sales draft he's most looking...

Prominent owner/breeders Gary and Mary West will begin an annual reduction of their broodmare band at Keeneland November starting with the 2021 sale. With Paramount Sales consigning, the Wests will offer 31 broodmares and broodmares prospects at this November's auction. Mares will be offered in foal to Hard Spun, Union Rags and The Factor, as well as to the Wests' champions Game Winner, Maximum Security and West Coast and Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed American Freedom. The Wests had acquired a significant number of mares in past years to...

Fasig-Tipton Senior Account Executive Dennis Lynch, "some kind of special man" according to all who knew him, passed away Friday after long battle with cancer. He was 68. A notice confirming Lynch's death was posted Friday on a blog he had been writing. It read: "Husband, father, brother, uncle and friend he was this to all of us. He was also a man of deep faith in God. 'Let's roll from the quarter pole' is something Dennis said many times when he wanted to get everyone moving in the same...

It didn't take long after the tragic news of Gerry Dilger's passing on Wednesday morning for his friends to decide upon the most fitting way to honor his memory: a continuing commitment to the education of young people in the Thoroughbred industry. Pat Costello said that discussions started at noon Thursday as the brainchild of Robbie Lyons and Lesley Campion in the Paramount Sales office and by 2 p.m., a Gofundme page was up and running. By Friday afternoon, the Gerry Dilger Equine Scholarship Foundation had already raised over $100,000,...

In this new series we sit down with a selection of Europeans making a significant impression in the Thoroughbred industry on foreign shores. Today we hear from Lesley Campion. Position: Account Manager at Paramount Sales. Original Hometown: Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland. Current Hometown: Midway, Kentucky. Thing you miss most about Ireland (not including family and friends): Probably the great standard of food and easy proximity to beautiful beaches. Hidden Talent: I'm not the worst cook in the world, years of Ted's sideline critiquing have helped me move up my game....