JP McManus has spoken publicly about his relationship with Alex Ferguson in a rare public interview.
The pair were front and centre in a public fall out back in the early 2000s over the recently deceased Rock of Gibraltar.
The legendary horse ran in the colours of Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson under an agreement he had with the Coolmore stud.
However, their positions on the breakdowns of ownership differed and ultimately Ferguson was not entitled to half the income from the horse's breeding rights.
Ferguson himself explained the dynamic in the past.
He said: "He ran in my colours under an agreement I had with the Coolmore racing operation in Ireland.
"My understanding was that I had a half-share in the ownership of the horse; theirs was that I would be entitled to half the prize money."
John Magnier and JP McManus were the largest stakeholders in Man United at the time and this led to a strained dynamic between the ownership group and Ferguson, who was managing the club at the time.
Relations between fans of the club and their owners began to sour and there was even a Cheltenham Gold Cup Day protest planned, something which Ferguson had to publicly plead against going ahead.
The conflict reached a resolution of sorts when Ferguson settled out of court for £2.5m, a sum which many experts speculated he could have made per year had he agreed to proposals on the table from Magnier.
Malcolm Glazer watched on as the equine row frayed relations between ownership and manager at the famed club and in May of 2005, four years on from the initial fallout over Rock of Gibraltar, he and his family swooped in to pick up the pieces as they took over the club for a fee of £790m.
That takeover fee reportedly yielded a cool £70m for Magnier and McManus as they forewent their stake in the club.
And McManus has spoke publicly about his relationship with the ex-Manchester United boss and insists there is no bad blood there.
McManus gave a rare public interview for the Irish Racing Yearbook.
He said of Ferguson: “If I meet him at the races, we’d say hello. Life’s too short,”
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