Susan Finnerty

FOUR of the Irish Sport Horse studbook’s WBFSH top-ranked event horses in 2015 were bred in the south-east and it’s back to Wexford again for the background story to Burghley runner-up Ringwood Sky Boy. Although sadly his breeder Myles Mahon passed away three years ago before the Courage 12-year-old recorded his best result to date and one which contributed to the ISH studbook retaining its long running monopoly of this title.

Myles’ brother Stephen and his nephew Pat, who inherited his uncle’s 25-strong herd of thoroughbred and sport horses, follow Ringwood Sky Boy’s progress with New Zealand rider Tim Price.

“Mylie started off when he bought a half-bred mare for five shillings off a neighbour and was breeding horses for 45 years. He wouldn’t get rid of any of them!” says Stephen, who remembers Sky Lassie, Ringwood Sky Boy’s dam: “She was a beautiful looking big chesnut mare, around 16.2hh, with a white face and two white stockings. Mylie, Lord have mercy on him, first really heard that the horse was doing well when a lady rang up from England to enquire about this mare and if there was any more of her youngstock for sale.”

Sky Lassie was by the dual Croker Cup champion Sky Boy, who also produced Kiltealy Spring, the damsire of another of the 2015 ISH cast in Cooley SRS. Ozymandias and Prince Rois, two other well-regarded thoroughbred sires, also appear in her pedigree.

Ozymandias is a sire fondly recalled by Michael Doyle too, as he featured in another good eventer, Helen Bell’s Olympic-listed Troubleshooter, bred by him and his mother Phyllis.

Michael, who also lives in Oylegate, knew Mylie (“My uncle would have been known locally as Mylie,” explains Pat). “He [Mylie] was a great character and used to call up here years ago to borrow the horsebox,” says Doyle, who also bred Aoife Clarke’s London Olympics horse, Master Crusoe.

LINK

Another link in the story is the Leonard family who had both of the Master Imp horses – Master Crusoe and Ringwood Magister – pass through their Newcastle West yard, as did this Ringwood-prefixed horse.

“He [Ringwood Sky Boy] was unsold at €2,200 at Goresbridge as a foal and Peter Leonard bought him a couple of weeks later at home. Mylie would have been as proud as punch to see how well the horse did this year,” says Pat, who now focuses on breeding thoroughbreds.

Cillians Well, a Trans Island five-year-old hurdle winner in training with Liz Doyle, is the first thoroughbred foal bred by him and this interest in horse racing was also shared by his uncle, who had Coolamaine Lady in training with local hero, Jim Bolger.

It was another local man, the late jockey Billy Redmond, who suggested Kedrah House Stud’s Holsteiner sire Courage II, a close relative of Cavalier Royale, to Sky Lassie’s owner. “She bred two by Courage and that mare died the same year [2012] as Mylie. My brother was really interested in sport and going to matches, he was also a very religious man. He loved talking about horses, they meant a lot to him,” adds Stephen.

There are none of Sky Lassie’s relatives still in Oylegate and her last recorded offspring is the six-year-old Skymond. This Rantis Diamond gelding is now eventing at novice level on the British Eventing circuit with Archie Lowe.

Emulating his half-brother’s form, which included netting £46,000 for his second place behind the mighty La Biostethique Sam FBW at Burghley in September, will be a tough task but the pair’s progress will continue being watched by family and friends of Mylie Mahon.

RINGWOOD SKY BOY – 2015

Second: Burghley CCI****

Fifth: Barbury Castle CIC***

15th: Badminton CCI****