McKay has been selling his horses to focus on his football agency business

By Geoff Webster BBC Scotland racing reporter

Like many others in the business, football agent Willie McKay has been busy recently wheeling and dealing in the transfer market as everyone huffed and puffed to beat the deadline for the transfer window.

The Monaco-based Scot has been involved with many of the game's big names, not just in Britain but across Europe, including Joey Barton, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Scott Brown and Pascal Chimbonda.

But for a man more familiar with Old Trafford, the Nou Camp and the San Siro, his mind recently has also been concentrating on events at Doncaster.

No, not the football club, Rovers, but the bloodstock sales company.

For, football apart, the other great passion in McKay's life is horse racing and over the years he's enjoyed some remarkable successes at many of the country's leading racecourses.

His sprinter, Les Arcs, earned him more than £500,000 in prize money, including wins in Newmarket's July Cup and Ascot's Golden Jubilee Stakes.

McKay has been a consistent high performer in the horse racing market

He even went as far as buying his own yard - Martins Grange Stables in Yorkshire - and hired his own trainer.

Last year, he had 15 winners and more than £70,000 in prize money but recently came the news that he was drastically cutting his number of horses-in-training from more than 20 to around half-a-dozen.

So why has a rapid expansion turned into a sudden reduction?

According to McKay: "I am just concentrating on football at the moment and where racing is concerned I am regrouping."

And at the Doncaster Sales, eight of the 21 horses he put up for auction were sold for more than £60,000.

Perhaps the downturn in the transfer market has coincided with McKay's decision to "regroup" and rein back his racing operation.

One of the racehorses that McKay sold at Doncaster - in partnership with Newcastle's Joey Barton - was called, appropriately, Internationaldebut and made £25,000.

"Perhaps the downturn in the transfer market has coincided with McKay's decision to "regroup" and rein back his racing operation."

That may seem quite a lot of money until you realise that, as a yearling, Internationaldebut cost 225,000 euros.

That perfectly illustrates the downside of the bloodstock world.

McKay, like many others in ownership, is very critical of prize money in Britain, highlighting races worth just £1,700 to the winner.

When travel costs, jockey fees and other expenses are calculated, they can actually be greater than the value of the race.

McKay has come to realise that the finances of ownership - plus financing your own racing stables - just don't stack up.

So, for the time being, we shall still see those familiar blue and white silks on the racecourse but just not as often as we have.

But surely it won't be too long before this larger-than-life colourful character of the football and racing worlds is leading in more winners at the country's top meetings.

You can probably bet on it.

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