LADY Luck was certainly on the side of the connections of the traditional Irish-bred stallion and show jumper Ballycapple Diamond Cruise (ISH) (TIH) who escaped castration as a yearling by the luckiest of circumstances.

The then yearling was lined up to be castrated on a sunny day in the beautiful hills of Wicklow back in the spring of 2010, with the attending veterinary surgeon having his needle poised to sedate him before the procedure. However, when his phone rang with a very anxious farmer at the other end in trouble with a cow calving, the procedure was immediately postponed for a week or two as the vet rushed off to assist.

This was to lead to the yearling getting a very fortunate reprieve, as his half-sister Ballycapple Mist won a five-year-old class in Cavan the following weekend. With such a good Irish pedigree and the family starting to perform, it was decided to leave ‘Charlie’ entire. He went on to show excellent potential as a young horse and subsequently was given to Steve Smith in Barnadown to campaign.

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on Steve’s side and the following week, an accident left him with a nasty broken leg and he was out of the saddle for quite a time. Subsequently, Charlie was moved to Darryl Walker’s yard where horse and rider developed an excellent rapport and this combination started their path to a successful career in the show jumping ring.

Walker brought Ballycapple Diamond Cruise up through the ranks, winning the Six/Seven-Year-Old Final in Balmoral and the Six-Year-Old ISH Final in Cavan, among many other successes. He is now a Grade A horse, having jumped to 1.40 with 223 points. The stallion’s most recent win was last summer in a 1.30 Young Rider class in Cavan, under Mark Finnerty.

Stud duties are now keeping Ballycapple Diamond Cruise busy at Ballycapple Sport Horses in Redcross. He is very fertile and is also passing on his own extremely placid temperament, along with exceptional rideability. His progeny are showing great talent and athleticism, including the wonderful mare, Swift Action, campaigned here by Olive Clark and now jumping successfully in the USA for Freestyling Farms.

Ballycapple Diamond Cruise’s dam line features the famous Cruising line with Chair Lift in there also. On his sire’s side, there is the equally famous Clover Hill line with Regular Guy further back on the page and the horse was recognised in 18th place in a recently compiled Performance Traditional Irish Horse (TIH) Stallion list.