TALENTED and considerate. That’s how best to describe the 2014 Rolex Kentucky CCI**** winner Bay My Hero, whose annual Yuletide gift to his breeder, Bryan Maguire, was delivered last week.

“A hamper arrives here every Christmas from ‘Mooney’ and Catherine [Witt, the horse’s owner],” reveals Bryan, who this year joined a rare group of breeders worldwide to have bred a four-star event winner.

Bryan and his two brothers, Matthew and the late James (Jimmy), were affectionately known as ‘the Three Wise Men’ back in the 1980s, when the Wexford trio enjoyed a flourishing trade selling Irish sport horses.

James, who sadly passed away in August following a farm accident, was one of the first to put Clover Hill progeny on the map.

“He had met Ethna [Bryan’s partner] in the street the day before it happened and as usual, the conversation was all about horses,” says Bryan, remembering his older brother.

Having heard about a Light Brigade mare, owned by Philip Heenan, who continually jumped out of her field, even after a pole was placed above the five-bar gate, James immediately booked her first foal.

That was Viewpoint, named after the vantage point on Heenan’s hillside, who was from Clover Hill’s handful of first foals. Sold on to Philip Heffer, for whom he won two classes and placed third in the World Cup qualifier at Olympia in 1985, he was one of numerous foals sourced around the north Tipperary hinterland by the Maguire brothers.

“George Friend from Toomevara would show us around and we’d have bought up to 15 foals a year back then. Philip did a lot of good for people, particularly the farmer-breeder, and they had a lot of respect for him. He got Light Brigade from Larry Greene, a vet in Roscrea and the deal was the horse was to die with Philip,” recalls Bryan, filling in another jigsaw piece as to how Heenan acquired so many well-bred thoroughbred stallions, including this sire of 1981 Irish Grand National winner Luska.

Their eldest brother’s interest in horses spread to the rest of his family, as Bryan explains: “James brought the working mare from the farm to the local stallion Ozymandias, kept the foals, then broke them and hunted them with the Island Hunt and sold on those young horses. Just as lots of farmers’ sons did at the time. Matty fell for horses as well and he wanted a pony, so our father bought one.”

Remarkably, all three brothers have bred four-star event horses, with another local stallion Des Noctor’s Cult Hero siring both Bay My Hero and The Deputy, bred by James. Both horses featured in British Eventing’s top-20 horses for the 2014 season with ‘Mooney’ ranked third and The Deputy, a previous All Ireland three-year-old champion at Bannow & Rathangan Show for George Chapman, ranked 19th.

Matty’s four-star horse was Tom and Carol Henry’s Fernhill Clover Mist, who went to the Hong Kong Olympics with Patricia Ryan. His dam, Clover Mist was bought at Goresbridge by Matty and it was a visit to another local stallion, Kiltealy Spring that produced the Irish team horse.

“It’s a pity there wasn’t more by Kiltealy Spring,” remarks Bryan. “I never went further than Bowes with a mare. That was the rule as I wasn’t a believer in trucking mares and foals around the country.”

Coincidentally, as with Paula Cullen, breeder of Badminton winner Paulank Brockagh, it turns out he’s a staunch supporter of traditional breeding and prefers the use of a thoroughbred sire with a half-bred mare, rather than the reverse traditional cross.

“That’s what I like anyhow, the coolness of the half-bred mare with the sharpness and gallop of the thoroughbred stallion,” he says.

That cross served the Maguire brothers well.

“Some foals we bred, the others we bought in, so they were a mixture of half and half. We had three farms here within a mile of each other and ran them as a unit. We had two tractors and two workmen with the tractors going nearly 24 hours a day. James kept the horses, Matty and I milked cows. It was a right system.”

PILGRIMAGE

Dublin Horse Show was an annual pilgrimage.

“In the good old days, we’d bring up to nine three-year-olds and go home with an empty lorry. There were marvellous buyers then, from Switzerland, Germany, Italy and England ... all those lovely pure Irish bloodlines like Coevers, Penistone, Artic Que and Sky Boy,” he recalls.

Like the pragmatic farmer he is, Bryan sees how times and the breeder profiles have changed. His father doubled his money sending cattle by train to the Dublin markets and, as he notes, livestock can seem a safer bet for the farmer-breeder when comparing production costs and sales prices. “Money talks, you can’t live on fresh air. People realise if they keep a calf, he’ll be worth a thousand euros as a two-year-old, that mightn’t happen with horses. There are hundreds of mares going to the can, the weaker ones [breeders] went out first but now the better ones are getting out or cutting back,” he remarks.

The family farm is now run by son Dermot and his wife Suzanne, who operate the successful Tomgar Sport Horses enterprise. Dermot’s sister Sandra is also involved with horses and runs a busy riding school. Another sister, Mairead, works at the United Nations in Geneva, while their other brother Joseph lives in Waterford.

Bryan currently owns three broodmares, including Bay My Hero’s dam Bing Power, in foal to the Berney’s thoroughbred stallion Superior Premium, plus a pair of Coevers Diamond Boy and Golden Trump mares.

“The first rung of the ladder is to keep the real Irish mare, although it’s going to be hard to keep the traditional one pure,” he says.

As Bay My Hero’s breeder, Bryan received a presentation from the Traditional Irish Horse Association at Dublin to mark the horse’s success in Kentucky.

“I wouldn’t be enamoured about being in the limelight,” he says modestly. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate when something like that happens – I really do – but I’m not a front man.”

Also on hand to witness the presentation was the lady who has owned Bay My Hero since he was a promising youngster and Future Event Horse League graduate, Catherine Witt.

“I really appreciated too that Catherine was there. We had a great chat afterwards for two hours about horses; she’s a sound woman. The horse ended up in a great place, with Catherine as the owner and William Fox-Pitt as the rider.

“I’d say that I could have sold as good a horse as ‘Mooney’ to Switzerland in the past where they ended up walking up hills and jumping 60cms with their owners. There’s nothing wrong with that, those horses got a lovely home. ‘Mooney’ got it all.”

REUNITED

Nicknamed ‘Mooney’ as a humorous nod to his sire’s name, Bryan was reunited with the horse at Tattersalls in 2010 when he and William Fox-Pitt won the first leg of an unprecedented treble.

“The first time I met William was at Tattersalls after ‘Mooney’ won the one-star there. He was walking the horse around on a loose rein at the very far side of the field, then he walked up across the bank and I said ‘You’re schooling for the two-star for next year!’ We had a right chat then, he’s a real horseman and a lovely gentleman.”

True to form, the pair went on to win the two and three-star classes in successive years (2011, 2012) followed by a win and fourth place at Kentucky and Burghley this season.

With the 2015 European eventing championships on the horizon and a Kentucky title to defend, is there any inkling of the plans for Bay My Hero in 2015?

“I haven’t a notion! William is a genius, he makes out the plans for the horses.”

The affable Ballycanew breeder has quietly enjoyed Bay My Hero’s rise to fame but it is clear he also sees a bigger picture.

“A horse might knock a fence but as long as you have your health, that’s all that matters. I’ve enjoyed the friendships made down through the years more than any success. It’s a great old life.”