DELVE into the pedigree of Irish Sport Horses and it’s unusual to not find a King, Flight or Imp dotted amongst the names.

The late Nicholas O’Hare, the Irish Horse World’s breeding columnist for much of its lifetime, rightfully described Slyguff Stud as the “cradle of Irish sport horse breeding”.

There’s plenty of candidates for the Slyguff horse of a lifetime title and the late Henry Graham’s gift of a painting on the kitchen wall helps whittle down the choices.

Centrestage is the late Loftus O’Neill in his distinctive tweed hat alongside King of Diamonds and John Hutchinson, surrounded by a host of headline names including Special Envoy, Mill Pearl, Vivaldi, Carrolls Royal Lion and Carrolls Young Diamond, all related to Imperius and King of Diamonds.

Another possible contender is Balda Beau. “He was the stunt horse here!” said Barbara Hatton, recalling how the stallion’s ‘Not Approved 1’ status was a deterrent to most breeders which meant that the thoroughbred son of the good National Hunt sire Kambalda attracted only a handful of mares, who were sometimes another type of handful, hence his ‘stunt man’ nickname.

However, Balda Beau struck gold with Cathy’s Lady, whose grandsire was... King of Diamonds. The result was the John Irish-bred Cambalda, the USEA Horse of the Year in 2010.

Master Imp is another; the only stallion at the London Olympics with four progeny competing across all three disciplines.

Then there’s Gibeon, their Croker Cup winner in 2022 and a batch of Slyguff home-breds that could throw down their claim, often by some or all of the final choice trio of Highland Flight, Imperius and King of Diamonds.

All three can rightfully claim to be Slyguff Stud’s horses of a lifetime of a golden age.

As Frances Hatton, Barbara’s mother, has frequently pointed out, horses were a feature on every Irish farm and their surrounding south-east hinterland was no exception.

Farmer-breeders and owners often went home from Dublin, Millstreet or the sales with a handsome profit after the sale of a young horse, often with Slyguff bloodlines and often bought by two great customers for Irish horses: Max Hauri and Graziano Mancinelli.

Loftus O'Neill with the home-bred Master Imp in 2004 \ Susan Finnerty

Highland Flight would feature large in any poll of top Irish stallions and Max Hauri, for one, rated him as amongst the best.

He was bought privately in England on Tom O’Neill’s only travels abroad with good friend Johnny Hughes.

“Highland Flight came over on the boat to Waterford and I think we borrowed Jay Bowe’s horsebox to collect him!” Barbara Hatton, Tom’s granddaughter, said.

Carrolls Flight and Eddie Macken were household names; Judy, a Guinness novice champion at Dublin, sold to Hauri and the Swiss team reserve horse for the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the Maloney family’s good performer Top Flight and Highland King (the sire of last week’s featured horse McKinlaigh), are a selection of his off-spring.

The Highland Flight daughter Highlight 2 bred the King Of Diamonds full-brothers Errigal Flight and Laughtons Flight for Eric Atkinson while their full-sister, Highlight Girl, is the dam of Diamond Clover.

And here goes another dive down the pedigree ‘rabbit hole’ as he produced Sharon Hunt’s Hong Kong team bronze medallist horse and the 2010 Luhmühlen CCI5*-L winner: Tankers Town.

That’s a second Slyguff connection to a Hong Kong medal, as Gina Miles and McKinlaigh won individual silver at those Games, a feat still unmatched by an Irish Sport Horse.

The Hatton family’s numerous contacts in the bloodstock world often yielded their next thoroughbred find. Artic Tack Stud’s Eoin Banville and their vet Justin Browne helped find the Giants Causeway chesnut Pointilliste; Peter Nolan tipped Barbara off about Gibeon and Imperius came from Con Collins’ yard.

Foaled in 1964, the dark brown stallion goes back to the brilliant French-bred Tourbillon and left his stamp in both show jumping and eventing history.

Switzerland features prominently in the story of Imperius. Janika Sprunger’s father Hansueli competed Master Maddox M in two World Cup finals. The home-bred Slygof, with Bruno Candrian aboard, finished individual fifth at the Los Angeles Olympics after a jump-off for the bronze medal.

Brazil too as Vivaldi, Imperius’ main show jumping star, was a four-time Derby winner for Nelson Pessoa.

Imperius also proved to be a sire of sires, producing Master Imp and Puissance. Loftus O’Neill, Tom’s son, bred Master Imp who lived in the same box, a stone’s throw from the farmhouse back door, his entire life and was also tended to by the Slyguff stallion men Michael Doyle and Noel Skelton.

Henry Graham’s Grand Prix horse Master Of Moments, campaigned by Conor Swail, the Army Equitation recruits Ballycumber and Lismakin, plus Master Ballinteskin (the first Irish Sport Horse to win a medal at the WBFSH young horse championships at Lanaken in 2001 with Eddie Moloney), are samples of Master Imp’s show jumping offspring.

In eventing, there’s a slew of four and five-star level Master Imp horses, such as Brookpark Vikenti, Da Vinci Code, Improvise and Killossery Jupiter Rising. Plus his ‘London four’ - see By The Numbers.

High Kingdom won two silver team medals, firstly at the London Olympics and then two years later at the 2014 World Equestrian Games with Zara Phillips. The pair also finished third at Rolex Kentucky (2017).

Cooley Masterclass, the back-to-back Kentucky winner (2018, 2019)? Out of a Master Imp mare.

Imperial Cavalier, High Kingdom’s London teammate? Out of Gene Pool, by Imperius, while four years earlier, High Kingdom’s full-brother Mandiba competed at the Games where McKinlaigh won silver.

The home-bred Master Imp was out of Tranquilla, a thoroughbred mare sourced from John Hutchinson and his nephew Michael stood Puissance, another famous Imperius son, at nearby Ballyquirke Stud.

Ardagh Highlight (Sam Watson’s silver team medal horse at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon), Horseware Bushman, Old Road, Oughterard Sky Boy and SAP Talisman are just some Puissance cross-country machines.

In the showring, the Master Imp-Highland King cross Zinzan won the working hunter and supreme horse titles for Justine Armstrong-Small at the Horse of the Year Show in 2003.

Watching on proudly in the grandstand when the Breen family’s Banglestown Imp won the Dublin hunter mare championship was her breeder Loftus O’Neill; the Master Imp x Trumpet Major bay had a successful career in broodmare classes too and returned to Dublin to win the Coote Cup broodmare championship in 2009.

By Master Imp and out of the King Of Diamonds mare Ashling 2, the obvious name for the next Imperius generation at Slyguff was Kings Master. Being a half-brother to Highland King was another bonus.

“There was never a cross word between us,” Barbara declared about the placid Kings Master, whose progeny like Highland King’s were commercial types. A Dublin treble of the young event horse champion (Stellor King), three-year-old loose jumping winner (Kings Marshall) and supreme hunter (Connswater River) are among Kings Master’s progeny highlights.

Making it three Imperius generations in a row at Slyguff is the Kings Master son Masters Choice, with his bred-in-eventing-purple damline too of Miners Lamp and Arctic Slave.

The iconic Slyguff painting with Loftus O’Neill and John Hutchinson with King Of Diamonds centrestage \ Susan Finnerty

The fact that ‘KOD,’ was a home-bred had to be a source of quiet pride for the O’Neill and Hatton families (Frances O’Neill married Harry Hatton, hence the connection between the two surnames).

The story of King Of Diamonds is well-known by now but always stands up to retelling. Slyguff Stud was started off by Tom O’Neill in 1936 and 26 years later, King of Diamonds was foaled.

By Paddy Byrne’s Irish Draught stallion Errigal, both King of Diamonds and his full-brother Slyguff Hero were out of Ruby (True Boy). Her dam Biddens was a thoroughbred.

Like two other ‘Irish Draught’ jumping sires - Clover Hill and Ginger Dick - that cross of thoroughbred blood provided extra athleticism and KOD, unusually for a stallion in that era, also had his own performance record.

SJI’s online records don’t extend that far back but we know that King of Diamonds was campaigned on the national circuit by John Hutchinson and jumped in Dublin as a four-year-old.

Visitors around the Slyguff kitchen table will also know the stories of King Of Diamonds competing against the likes of Dundrum and Tommy Wade in Abbeyleix. A photo of KOD and John Hutchinson, taken after the two combinations divided that day, is part of the Slyguff painting’s centrepiece.

Where to begin with the King Of Diamonds descendants? The Australian-based Irish Draught Info website is a personal go-to for Draught bloodlines and KOD stallion son household names jump out scrolling through this list: Candle King and his full-brother John Henry, Copper King, Diamond Lad, Diamond Rock, Diamonds Are Trumps, Errigal Flight and his full-brother Laughtons Flight, the full-brother trio of Flagmount Boy, Flagmount Diamond and Flagmount King, Glidawn Diamond - the list goes on. And on.

Another famous KOD full-sibling pair, bred by Noel C. Duggan, are Mill Pearl, on the American silver medal team at the Seoul Olympics with Joe Fargis, and John Ledingham’s Army recruit Millstreet Ruby.

Nick Skelton’s Hopes Are High (Flagmount Diamond) peaked in 1998, winning the Dublin Grand Prix and selected for the British bronze medal team at the world championships that summer; Richmont Park (Coevers Diamond Boy) and Royne Zetterman were part of Sweden’s silver medal team at Jerez four years later, when the brilliant Carling King and Kevin Babington were on the Irish team.

Carling King goes back to Diamond Night, a KOD mare bred by Paddy Quirke, and he was on the Irish gold medal team at the 2001 European championships in Arnhem. He also won the King George V Gold Cup at Hickstead.

Flo Jo, another Clover Hill and out of the KOD mare Twinkle, matched that Hickstead feat after her win with Marion Hughes in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

Seamus Hughes and Ita Brennan’s foundation mares, usually crossed with Cavalier Royale, often had a cross of King Of Diamonds or Imperius in their pedigrees and then there’s Special Envoy.

Ask Rodrigo Pessoa to nominate his horse of a lifetime and Baloubet du Rouet, his Olympic gold medallist and three-times World Cup champion, could be an obvious choice.

It turns out that Special Envoy, another Max Hauri find, is the horse he credits in last year’s World of Showjumping interview as having that “special bond” with. “There were only ups with him, never downs and, as characters, you can’t even compare the two horses - it is Special Envoy who holds my heart.”

Bred by Marion Hughes’ great-aunt Mary Hughes (who also bred Jessica Kürten’s Millstreet World Cup qualifier winner and Atlanta Olympics horse Diamond Exchange), Special Envoy was the best possible servant to the Pessoa family.

With Nelson, he won the 1989 Dublin Grand Prix and was runner-up in the 1991 World Cup final. Handed over to son Rodrigo, they won the Aachen Grand Prix (1994) and the Irish-bred brought the Brazilan to his first Olympic Games and World Cup final.

And there in brushstrokes, broader than the Slyguff painting, are not one but three horses of a lifetime. All part of the Slyguff family and there are countless other horses, with a dash of KOD, Imperius and Highland Flight blood, that hold that same title for their owners around the world.

250 - punts. King Of Diamonds stud fee at the height of his popularity.

91 - the highest number of King Of Diamonds progeny on IHR Online (1981).

£20 - plus £1 groom’s fee = Imperius’ stud fee for half-bred mares at the start.

4 - Master Imp progeny competed at the London Olympics in 2012: High Kingdom, Master Crusoe, ODT Master Rose and Ringwood Magister.

3 - event horses in London 2012 top-10 with Imperius bloodlines: Imperial Cavalier (fifth), Master Crusoe (seventh) and High Kingdom (eighth).

1 - stallion has topped three eventing sire rankings (WBFSH, USEF and British Eventing) in the same year: Master Imp (2014).