NOT since 2007 has an Irish Sport Horse won a gold medal at the FEI WBFSH young event horse championships, back when Cast Away II (TIH), bred by the late Noel Cawley won a vintage seven-year-old final.
That gap has now been bridged by Brookfield Danny de Muze, bred near Kells, Co Meath, by Donal Callery, whose brother Michael bred the Le Lion dual graduate Greenacres Special Cavalier that went on to win Badminton CCI5*-L.
It was one of the best years at recent championships for Irish Sport Horses, since Bonmahon Chelsea and Cooley Snapchat won bronze in the six and seven-year-old finals in 2021.
Irish Sport Horses have fared better at the other World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) young horse show jumping championships at Lanaken over the past decade.
One school of thought is that Irish-bred eventers, particularly Traditional Irish Horses, are not as precocious as their Continental-bred counterparts and need more time to mature before a long career. Although with an increasing percentage of warmblood lines in Irish Sport Horses, that gap has closed.
The shift in event horse breeding patterns and leading countries was seen in this year’s strong showing by Belgium’s Lara de Liederkerke.
Numerically, the seven-year-old final was the strongest for ISH runners (17) with one gold medallist in Brookfield Danny de Muze and two more top-10 results recorded by Irish Sport Horses.
Belline Castle ONR Candy (Sligo Candy Boy - Castle Roller Coaster, by High Roller. Breeder: Noel Ruane) placed seventh with Patrick Byrne and Billy Daly bred another Le Lion finalist in Newmarket Amy (Newmarket Jewel - Sanforized, by Catcher In The Rye), 10th with Australia’s Kevin McNab.
While there were just seven Irish Sport Horses on the six-year-old start list, two finished last weekend as medallists: the Eugene McEntee-bred Rutland Flamenco (silver) and bronze for Tykillen Tango, bred in Co Wexford by Ciara Kinsella.
Just outside the medals and top 10 respectively were Monbeg Condor (Condios - Little Diamond, by Diamond Valley Gold. Breeder: John Flynn) in fourth place, while Lislee Honey (Lagans OBOS Quality - Lislee Beauty, by Kasmayo. Breeder: Charles Dullea) finished 11th.
Overall, it was a strong strike rate by Irish Sport Horses, back on the Le Lion d’Angers podium and possibly some eventing household names of the future amongst this year’s finalists as an extra bonus.
Brookfield Danny de Muze as a foal with Daniel Callery, whose parents bought the future Lanaken gold medallist’s dam Gortglas Sparrow as a present for their son
WHILE it’s been a long wait to see another Irish-bred gold medallist at Le Lion d’Angers, this autumn has also been a short and extraordinary WBFSH championship season for Donal Callery.
He travelled with daughter Lauren to watch Cookstown Luidam, bred by the Kells family, jump clear in the Lanaken five-year-old opening round with Seamus Hughes Kennedy.
Cookstown Luidam’s home-bred Cavalier Royale dam - Cookstown Cavalier (Cavalier Royale - Gortglas Sparrow) - is a half-sister to Brookfield Danny de Muze.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable. And now ‘Danny’ at Le Lion. I watched on the laptop last weekend, he lay in second place on Saturday evening after the cross-country and dressage.
“I knew he’d probably do very well in the show jumping because he’s an excellent jumper, very consistent and accurate. And he has another top jockey [Tom McEwen] on board! To get into the top 10 would have been fantastic, but gold?” a delighted Donal told The Irish Field this week.
A great fan of Emerald van’t Ruytershof - or simply Emerald as he’s known as by sport horse breeding fans - Donal chose the Emerald son I’m Special de Muze as the covering sire for Gortglas Sparrow back in 2017.
Gortglas Sparrow’s pedigree is a popular cross of Connemara and thoroughbred traditional bloodlines. Following in the family tradition, the mare was bought as a present for newborn son Daniel by his parents as older sisters Ava and Lauren had also been gifted broodmares.
“When each of the kids were born, we decided we’d get them either a mare or foal of their own to get them started. So Ava got a filly foal and we named her Princess Ava. She was by Clover Echo and we purchased her from Eamon Sheehan in Kilkenny. This filly comes from the famous Kells line so she has been good to us since.”
The Kells line refers, not to their Meath location, but to the sport horse family built up by the late doyenne Ita Brennan, starting with the Imperius mare Grange Suzy, foaled in 1986.
“Princess Ava is a half-sister to Cuffesgrange Cavalidam who was European pony champion with Max Wachman. Also in that line, you have Cuffesgrange Cavadora, MHS Washington, MHS Scala, MHS Lost the Plot and MHS Jersey Girl, all 1.55m, 1.60m horses.
Hallie Coon (USA) and Tykillen Tango won a bronze medal at the FEI WBFSH World Breeding Eventing Championships for Young Horses, Le Lion d'Angers \ FEI/PSV
“It’s a super line, going back to the great Cavalier Royale. Then my brother Michael gave Lauren a Cavalier Royale - Clover Hill filly foal when she was born and that filly is a three-parts sister to the 2024 Badminton winner Greenacres Special Cavalier, bred by Michael,” Donal explained.
“Hard to find”
As he tells it in his Breeders’ 10 feature (see page 85), Donal and wife Maura went on a road trip to view a Traditional Irish Horse mare by Jimmy Jones’ famous Ashfield Bobby Sparrow, as Daniel’s potential gift.
Donal had a special reason for seeking out this particular Connemara performance sire’s bloodline. “It was something about this great pony. I absolutely loved him and I always wanted to have something by Ashfield Bobby Sparrow, but it was hard to find one.”
“When I saw Gortglas Sparrow advertised by Sian [Carson Ball], I couldn’t believe the mare was for sale. As soon as I saw the mare, I fell in love with her - pure blood and a beautiful, tiny head.
“Straightaway, it was in the back of my head what stallion I would put her to. So we covered her the first year to Cavalier Royale and she bred a foal called Danny Boys Cavalier. That foal was also called after Daniel and went on to compete in Canada at 1.50m level.
“We covered her again with Cavalier and again, I was hoping for a filly and we got a filly: that’s Cookstown Cavalier.
“We’ve retained her as a broodmare on the farm here and she actually bred the five-year-old by Luidam that jumped in Lanaken this year with Seamus Hughes Kennedy: Cookstown Luidam [HK Lui].”
The Callery brothers were ahead of the pack in choosing Cavalier Royale. “Probably nobody knew anything about him back then, but Michael would have done a bit of research on him and we reckoned it was worth using him.”
He feels that Cavalier Royale added an important element. “With the Connemara, they’re absolutely fantastic in front but may lack speed and lightness off the ground. That’s where the turbo cross of a thoroughbred gives blood and the Connemara gives the jumping technique. And then with the warmblood, you finish it off with scope and then you need technique. Cavaliers were super behind, Connemaras are super in front.
“You could sit and watch Connemaras jump all day. Absolutely fantastic, knees up to to their neck, it’s just unreal.
“When ‘Sparrow’ - Gortglas Sparrow’s stable name - was covered by I’m Special de Muze, Danny de Muze was that foal. He was very correct, a pure model and we sold him as a foal to Brian Douglas in Northern Ireland.
“Brian had bought Sparrow’s previous foal in 2017 by Tolan R at Goresbridge and he came back the next year and bought the Special de Muze foal. I can still recall Brian saying, ‘I’m sure one of them will get to Le Lion’ and he was right. He’s an excellent judge. He ended up finding a very, very good pony for our daughter Lauren and we have a great relationship with Brian.
“He brought on the pair and it was Brian that actually got the horse into the right hands. There’s no question that if a horse doesn’t get into the right hands, it’s very easy for them to slip through.”
Ian Cassells with Rutland Flamenco (ISH) won a silver medal in the six-year-olds at the FEI WBFSH World Breeding Eventing Championships for Young Horses \ Pam Cunningham/Irish Eventing Times
Mare is 70%
In-house production is now done by the Callery next generation. “We’ve been breeding all along and selling foals or as three-year-olds, whatever. But now we’re at the stage that the kids can produce the progeny of our mares and they’re so passionate about horses, they’d actually put me to shame.
“All three kids have competed through the years in many disciplines in ponies and have won at the RDS a number of times. Daniel has excelled in mounted games, representing Ireland at European and world level. Last year at La Bonne in France, he became reserve world champion.
“They love horses, love competing and they’ve made great friends and getting to travel the world. It’s unbelievable.”
The Callerys currently have eight broodmares, a headcount Donal is keen to keep in check, saying: “It would be very easy to run away with yourself and bring numbers up. But I work full-time, Maura works full-time and it’s busy in the breeding season.
“So I look to keep prioritising quality, not quantity and, by keeping a small, select number of broodmares in our yard, we are valuing excellence. We can select the best stallions too, by not having too many mares as we can pay the price for the top stallions.
“Whereas, if you have too many mares in the yard to be covered, you could end up using lesser price stallions when the stud fees total goes up! I’ve a huge interest in genetics. I know how it works with cattle because we’ve been successful with them and it works the same with horses. The mare is 70%, so the mare must have a high genetic merit value. Trying to use top stallions and low performance mares just doesn’t work.”
His brother Michael has also followed the same approach and it has paid off for him, with one highlight being as the breeder of Greenacres Special Cavalier, winner of last year’s Badminton CSI5*-L with Kiwi rider Caroline Powell.
Interestingly, Greenacres Special Cavalier also competed at the FEI WBFSH young event horse championships in France, finishing 17th twice on her two appearances in 2020 and 2021.
Plenty of material there for amicable bragging rights and friendly rivalry between the two brothers and whether Brookfield Danny de Muze matches her five-star record is a matter of time.
For now, the Callery-bred has ended the ISH gold medal drought at Le Lion d’Angers and that is a major achievement in its own right.
10,000 – euros won by seven-year-old gold medal champion Brookfield Danny de Muze.
3 – Irish Sport Horse medallists – Brookfield Danny de Muze, Rutland Flamenco and Tykillen Tango at this year’s WBFSH young event horse championships.
2 – TIH dams: Gortglas Sparrow (Breeder: Christine Carson) and Lisdara Impish Lady (Breeder: Grainne Gormley) of ISH medallist horses at this year’s championship.
1 – gold medal for Irish Sport Horses at Le Lion in 2025: Brookfield Danny de Muze, named after his breeder’s son.
Six-year-old championship
Gold – Tara Van Het Leliehof (BWP). Pegase van’t Ruytershof (BWP) - Bonita van het Leliehof ’09 (BWP) by Major de la Cour (SF). Breeder: Stal Het Leliehof. Rider: Lara de Liderkerke-Meier (BEL).
Silver – Rutland Flamenco (ISH). Casallco (HOLST) - Red Flamenco (ISH) by Je T’Aime Flamenco (BWP). Breeder: Eugene McEntee. Rider: Ian Cassells (IRL).
Bronze – Tykillen Tango (ISH). Tyson (KWPN) - Lisdara Impish Lady (ISH) (TIH) by Master Imp (TB). Breeder: Ciara Kinsella. Rider: Hallie Coon (USA).
Seven-year-old championship
Gold – Brookfield Danny de Muze (ISH). I’m Special de Muze (BWP) - Gortglas Sparrow (ISH) (TIH), by Ashfield Bobby Sparrow (CP). Breeder: Donal Callery. Rider: Tom McEwen (GB).
Silver – Helio (HANN). Herald (HOLST) - O Lady Mary (HOLST), by Only (HOLST). Breeder: Christina Pinedo Sendagorta. Rider: Lara de Liederkerke-Meier (BEL).
Bronze – Noa W (KWPN). Baltic VDL (KWPN) - Gucretia (KWPN), by Indoctro (HOLST). Breeder: G. Wierts. Rider: Ian Cassells (IRL).