The year 2014 proved a landmark year for Irish event horse breeding when Bay My Hero and Paulank Brockagh, bred by Bryan Maguire and Paula Cullen, won the Rolex Kentucky and Mitsubishi Motors Badminton three-day events. It was a year that saw the Irish Sport Horse Studbook claim the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) title for the 19th time with those four-star successes sealing the race.

Three years later and the first of the northern hemisphere’s 2017 four-star winners at Kentucky and Badminton - fischerRocana FST and Nereo - have been bred by the German and Spanish breeders, Mirko Glotz and Ramon Beca.

Irish breeding shone best at Kentucky where 50% of the top-10 were Irish-breds and perhaps the common denominator from the four-star results so far is the prevalence of thoroughbred blood in all hemispheres.

Take the results from Adelaide last November, the first of just six four-star events in the world and also the first to count, within the WBFSH’s calendar year, towards its 2017 rankings.

Four of the Adelaide top-10 were thoroughbreds.

This strike rate included the winning horse, Clifford and second-placed Wedlock Aquifer, while two traditional Irish-bred exports - the Ard Black Cat-sired Bells N Whistles (fifth) and Spring Panorama (10th), by Porter Rhodes and bred by John Minion - featured well.

OTTBS SHINE

Clifford’s winning rider Hazel Shannon also received the TB Racing SA award for the highest-placed off the track Thoroughbred (OTTB).

Kentucky again proved to be the home of OTTB event horses with 10 amongst the 39 finishers, including the highest-placed Mettraise (14th), the horse that finished exactly on the optimum cross-country time.

Thoroughbreds were not so prevalent at Badminton, although from an Irish breeding viewpoint, the best result was recorded by Arctic Soul (seventh). The Luso gelding leapfrogged 60 places in the final order with Gemma Tattersall and was amongst the 20 show jumping clears on the final day.

Just one other Irish-bred, The Duke Of Cavan (eighth), featured in the top-10 and together with Cooley Rorkes Drift, was the second of Courage II’s Rio Olympics offspring at Badminton.

Although results by pure-bred thoroughbreds do not count towards WBFSH rankings, it is interesting to note how each of the four-star winners to date - Clifford, fischerRocana FST and Nereo - are either thoroughbred or thoroughbred-sired.

When asked by William Micklem at the final Rolex Kentucky press conference what the top four riders looked for in a four-star horse, stamina, courage and the ability to gallop for up to 12 minutes were the common responses.

Maxime Livio, whose second-placed horse Qalao des Mers is 75.39% TB, was particularly expressive about the need for a brave cross-country horse.

The French rider was one of just five riders inside the Rolex Kentucky cross-country time, (including Tim Bourke and the O.B.O.S Quality 004 gelding Luckaun Quality, the fastest of the day) and one of only two riders with clean cross-country and show jumping rounds.

WHERE ARE THE SUCCESSORS?

High Kingdom, by the late Master Imp, was the other and the fact that there is no immediate thoroughbred successor in Ireland to Master Imp as a sire of four-star horses is a concern. Also scoring well in the longevity stakes is the 18-year-old Mr Medicott, whose fourth place result was well marketed by the Irish Draught Horse Society (North America) with a presentation to Philip Dutton at Rolex Kentucky by its representative Jan Robertson.

Undoubtedly the glowing example of longevity is the 17-year-old La Biosthetique Sam FBW, whose Badminton cross-country round on a tough day was a masterclass.

The double Olympic champion was one of just two horses inside the time (the British-bred Xavier Faer, ridden by Tim Price, was the other).

The next fastest cross-country times were recorded by thoroughbred-sired runners in Nereo (s. Fines) the horse that provided Andrew Nicholson’s long-awaited win; Ingrid Klimke’s Horseware Hale Bob (Helikon) and Oliver Townend’s ODT Ghareeb (Ghareeb).

Interestingly, amongst those to record sub-10 time penalties were Cathal Daniels (Rioghan Rua), Clare Abbott (Euro Prince) and Joseph Murphy (Sportsfield Othello) proving that Irish riders excel in the second phase.

Twenty-one Irish-breds, including a second thoroughbred Galley Light, were amongst the 46 on the final day at Badminton, where show jumping clears were far more plentiful than at Kentucky.

Some 50% of the top-10 show jumping clears were by continental sires, which adds further fuel to the debates about the complex mix required for a modern four-star eventer and whether the sea change in Irish sport horse breeding will produce the same results at future Kentucky and Badminton events and for WBFSH rankings.