IT began at Dublin as the brainchild of the late Thady Ryan – rather than judging broodmares and foals on an individual basis, to hold a combination championship.
Breeders and exhibitors took to this breakout approach immediately and 11 qualifiers were held around the country in 1985 when 20 combinations won their places for the inaugural final by placing “first or second at qualifying shows held throughout the country earlier this year.”
Dublin Horse Show catalogues are always a great source of information and chart the changes in the Breeders’ Championship from that first year, when points were allocated to the mare (30) and foal (70) respectively.
While the points allocation and format has altered through the years, (one year later, a 50/50 points basis was in use), the current RDS guideline simply states: “Open to mares likely to produce performance horses, with an athletic foal at foot,” with the emphasis now apparently on the dam.
Interestingly, the first Breeders’ Championship was confined to six-year-old, and under, mares only and the foal at foot had to be by a Bord na gCapall approved sire.
Good prize money has always been the hallmark and part of the attraction of this class. IR£1,000 was the first prize on offer in the self-sponsored RDS Breeders Championship in 1985, down to IR£100 for the sixth-placed fair. Stallion masters were also recognised with a bonus of IR£200 to the owner of the winning foal’s sire.
“There was the best sort of mares and a real horse crowd around the ringside at the time,” recalled Ballymureen Stud’s Paddy Quirke in The Irish Field’s Golden Horsemen series. Not only did the Littleton owner win the first Breeders’ Championship with Golden Sunset and her Diamond Lad filly foal (later sold as a five-year-old to Max Hauri), he also bred Overture, the champion hunter, that same Horse Show week.
Holy Grail
Similarly to the other two dozen subsequent winning owners and their connections, a Breeders’ Championship win was the equivalent of “the Holy Grail” as two-time winner Kieran O’Gorman once described it.
The Hurst family, from Lisbellaw, has gone down in the Breeders’ Championship history books with the most wins, dominating the results pages with a series of five wins from the mid-1990s with a string of Tattygare-prefix champions.
Their 1995 and 1997 winning mare My Irish Bride VII, by Sportsman’s sire Chou Chin Chow, is also the grandam of the dual champion mare Kildysert Royale, bred by Tom and Linda Magee.
Derry Rothwell recorded a hat-trick of wins too, beginning with Greenhall Cailin Deas in 1988 whose foal Millennium Cruise, was to record a unique double as the winning dam in the 2011 final.
The McCombe family had a Breeders’ Championships treble with their Springfield Lady Nell. Bred by Fintan Flannelly, she is the only mare to have won on three occasions with various foals.
What did these foals go on to do? That’s a question and justifiable benchmark of this championship.
Nowadays, the Irish Horse Register and other performance databases makes it easy to track recent graduates, provided the paperwork is correct.
The early years of the Breeders Championship early years meant sifting through the older Horse Show catalogues and interestingly, the performance success stories stem from these years.
Take, for example, Patrick Wafer’s unnamed Carnival Night colt foal in the 1987 final. That was the future stallion Parkmore Night, who went on to produce William Fox-Pitt’s Hong Kong Olympic horse Parkmore Ed.
Vintage year
1992 was a vintage year with both the late Henry Graham’s future Grand Prix Horse Master of Moments and the future Army Equitation School recruit-in-waiting Killossery in the line-up. Master of Moments, from Master Imp’s first crop of foals, was shown by his breeder Michael Doyle. Clover Hill, the damsire of Doyle’s colt foal, also featured as the sire of Killossery Lodge Stud’s colt foal finalist, that qualified at Ballivor with his Radical dam, Killossery Jarel Jeannie.
Kim Severson’s four-star event horse Tipperary Liadhnan is another Breeders’ Championship graduate from the class of 1997. Owned then by Paddy Corbett, the Fast Silver colt and his I’m A Star mare Gypsy Star had qualified that year at Charleville.
Castleforbes Lord Lancer and his Big Sink Hope dam Assagart My Only Hope recorded an emotional win for the Roche family from Foulksmills in 2014 and three years later, he was back in Ring 1 as the young horse champion.
Another Castleforbes flag bearer is Castleforbes Libertina and the former Dublin Grand Prix winner with Jessica Kurten is the most high-profile performance mare to line out. Lady Georgina Forbes’ mare qualified in 2016 with her Kannan filly foal, although they didn’t feature in the prize money.
The Breeders’ Championship has undergone many sea changes since it began, mirroring the changing breeding patterns in Ireland. From a traditional showing class to the all-continental format and judges, it still remains the one its staunch followers want to win.
Breeders’ Championship roll of honour
1985 – Patrick Quirke’s Golden Sunset, by Well Read (TB) and Diamond Lad (ID) filly foal.
1986 – Dr Mervyn Laurence Patterson’s Panarose Two, by Wilton House (TB) and Drumnaconnell West, filly foal by I’m A Star (TB).
1987– Patrick Quirke’s Golden Sunset and Golden Future, colt foal by Diamonds Are Trumps (ID).
1988 – Pamela Millar’s Virginia Wolfa, by Regular Guy (TB) and Clonterm Airborne, colt foal by Diamond Lad (ID).
1989 – Violet Scott’s Ballysheil Queen, by Clover Hill (ID) and Standard Bearer (TB) colt foal.
1990 – Patrick Wafer’s Parkmore Jewel (ID), by Atlantic Boy and Parkmore Chance, filly by Kildalton Gold (ID).
1991 – Ronald D. McCombe’s Springfield Lady Nell, by Wilton House (TB) and Santa’s Sleigh (TB) colt foal.
1992 – Lorcan Allen’s Courtown Web, by Weavers Web (TB) and Courtown Drift, filly foal by Jacksons Drift (TB).
1993 – Ronald D. McCombe’s Springfield Lady Nell and Satco (TB) colt foal.
1994 – Pamela McCombe’s Springfield Lady Nell and Santa’s Sleigh (TB) colt foal.
1995 – JJ Hurst & Son’s My Irish Bride VII, by Chou Chin Chow (TB) and Euphemism (TB) colt foal.
1996 – John & Sharon Alexander’s The Blue Lady (ID), by Blue Rajah and Ardattin Blue Kate, filly foal by Valville (TB).
1997 – JJ Hurst & Son’s My Irish Bride VII and Euphemism (TB) colt foal.
1998 – Derry Rothwell’s Greenhall Cailin Deas, by Mister Lord (TB) and Millennium Cruise, filly foal by Cruising (ISH).
1999 – JJ Hurst & Son’s My Golden Bonnie, by Euphemism (TB) and Gold Member, colt foal by Golden Cliff.
2000 – Michael J. McCarthy MRCVS’s Levacide, by Edmund Burke and Kilnagross Twinkle, filly foal by Big Sink Hope.
2001 – Callinafercy House Stud’s Callinafercy April (TB), by Strong Statement and Callinafercy Andros, colt foal by Glenlara (ID).
2002 – Hurst Show Horses’s Tattygare April Dawn, by Ireland’s Pride (ID) and Tattygare Austintatious, colt foal by Limmerick (HOLST).
2003 – Mark English’s Dimmer Light, by Paris Lights (SF) and Kiltrom Dimmer Zed, filly foal by Ricardo Z (ZANG).
2004 – Hurst Show Horses’s Tattygare Golden Moments, by Euphemism (TB) and Tattygare Look At Me, filly foal by Porsch (BWP).
2005 – Jim Tempany MRCVS’s Leader Star, by I’m A Star (TB) and Tireragh Eternal Optimist, filly foal by Big Sink Hope (TB).
2006 – Desmond Gibson’s Hillsides Amazing Grace, by Big Sink Hope (TB) and Spin Doctor, colt foal by Top Of The World (TB).
2007 – Margaret Jeffares’s Debbies Clover, by Farney Clover (ISH) and Ballykelly Mac Master, by Master Imp (TB).
2008 – John & Cathal Dinneen’s Kilshinihan Lass, by Big Sink Hope (TB) and colt foal by Ghareeb (TB).
2009 – Kieran O’Gorman’s Kildysert Royale, by Cavalier Royale (HOLST) and Brookfield Miss Lux, by Lux Z (HANN).
2010 – Kieran O’Gorman’s Kildysert Royale and colt foal by Lux Z (HANN).
2011 – Derry Rothwell’s Millenium Cruise, by Cruising (ISH) and Carsonstown Calypso, colt foal by Mermus R (KWPN).
2012 – Derry Rothwell’s Greenhall Dot, by Cruising (ISH) and Greenhall Vivendi Cruz, filly foal by Ars Vivendi (HOLST).
2013 – Rosemary Connors’s Woodfield Valier, by Lucky Valier (ISH) and Woodfield Xtra, colt foal by Financial Reward (TB).
2014 – John & Mary Margaret Roche’s Assagart My Only Hope, by Big Sink Hope (TB) and Assagart Lord Lancer, colt foal by Castleforbes Lord Lancer (HOLST).
2015 – Dermot O’Sullivan’s Aidensfield Flamenco, by Je T’Aime Flamenco (BWP) and Quality Rosshill, colt foal by O.B.O.S Quality 004 (OLD).
2016 – Paula Howard’s Slatequarry Sasha, by Ghareeb (TB) and colt foal by Greenan Fort (TB).
2017 – John & Mary Margaret Roche’s Assagart My Only Hope and Assagart High Hopes, by Castleforbes Lord Lancer (HOLST).
2018 – Michael Egan and Danielle Cusack’s Hallowberry Destiny, by Ramiro B (BWP) and MD Sandyhill Sir Charles, colt foal by Clonaslee Captain Cristo (ISH).
Did you know
The Lynn Aldridge Perpetual Challenge Trophy, named after the late Sligo-born director general of the Irish Horse Board, is presented to the winning connections.
• One purebred Irish Draught combination has won the Breeders’ Championship. That was Patrick Wafer’s winning combination in 1990 of Parkmore Jewel and her Kildalton Gold filly, Parkmore Chance.
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BY THE NUMBERS
Five – stallions that have produced both a winning mare and foal: Big Sink Hope, Cruising, Euphemism, Ghareeb and I’m A Star.
Three – wins for Springfield Lady Nell.
Two – winning foals each for Big Sink Hope (2000, 2005), Diamond Lad (1985, 1988), Euphemism (1995, 1997), Lux Z (2009, 2010) and Santa’s Sleigh (1991, 1994).
One – Millennium Cruise is the only winning dam (2011) to have won as a foal too (1998).