Billionaire bruised by judge’s damning words
‘John Magnier doesn’t give interviews and has little regard for the press, but as plaintiff in a case that was headed for the High Court that was all about to change.’ Photo: David Fitzgerald
“There is a God.” That was the reaction of Tipperary farmer John Hurley when he heard that billionaire John Magnier had lost his High Court case, seeking to compel the Thomson-Moore family to sell their 751-acre Barne Estate to him …
It was a bad week for Magnier, the billionaire horse racing magnate who runs his empire from Coolmore, Co Tipperary. In the same week that he lost the Barne case, which could cost him €7m in legal fees, planning authorities upheld an objection to the Coolmore Stud’s plans to knock old farmyard buildings from the 64-acre Parkville Farm that it bought on the outskirts of Clonmel for €2.425m last year.
