THE second-place finish of the Deutches Sportpferd in the breed competition at Le Lion d’Angers was mainly due to Bob Chaplin who won the silver medal in the six-year-old CCI1* class under Australia’s Paul Tapner.

However, this grey gelding, who was bred in Co Tyrone by Ken Thompson, could just as easily have been registered as an Irish Sport Horse and, in fact, is described as being such on the Tapner Eventing Team website.

Many people in this country were impressed by the gelding when he contested the potential young event horse class at Dublin in 2014 and the following year when he appeared under saddle. However, the grey was then known as Aaroch and those who were associated with him in his younger days were unaware of his name change and current whereabouts.

Bob Chaplin is by the Casall Ask stallion Lougherne Cashell who was imported into Ireland as a three-year-old in 2010 by Jane and William Collins of the Lougherne Stud in Hillsborough.

The Holstein, who is out of the Con Air mare S-Con Laine stood his sole season that year, attracting 35 mares. Once broken and riding, Lougherne Cashell was sent back to Germany. He has since been sold and gelded and is now jumping at 1.45m to 1.50m level.

Twelve of Cashell’s progeny were registered as Irish Sport Horses, including the show jumpers Loughview Black Diamond and Oilean Honey and the eventer Newferry Jagermeister.

Among those who have a Pferdepass registration is the Grade B jumper Captain Cashell while Lougherne Cash In Hand, who was evented here for the past three seasons by Conor O’Hare for Jane Collins but is now in Germany, was registered with the Anglo European Studbook.

Incidentally, being out of the Amiro M mare Aminka, Cash In Hand is a half-brother to the Limmerick gelding Lougherne Luke At Me who, in the hands of Italy’s Vittoria Panizzon, won a section of the BE100 Open class last weekend at Aldon.

When Bob Chaplin was conceived, his dam, Maypool Silver Seal, was in the ownership of Co Down veterinary surgeon Carolyn Perkins who sold her in foal to Ken Thompson of Dromquin, Co Tyrone. It was from Thompson, but through Mark McElroy, that the grey gelding was purchased as a two-year-old by equine physiotherapist Sharon Kelly.

Realising that she had an eventer on her hands, Kelly sent ‘Aaroch’ to Shirley Hurst as a three-year-old with a view to qualifying for Dublin.

This the grey did first time out at the Ard Chuain Equestrian Centre in Ballina and, while he disappointed at the RDS, there was an excuse as he suffered a slight bout of colic. Kelly then qualified Aaroch for the Premium Elite Sale at Cavan where he was knocked down to Emma Jackson and Colin Halliday for €6,600.

In 2015, Jackson partnered Aaroch to victory in the four-year-old young event horse final at Balmoral and, although he again impressed when qualifying through the Young Event Horse Series for the RDS, his season then fell apart a bit. Jackson brought him back to basics and, on his first and only Eventing Ireland start, Aaroch won an EI90 class at Glenpatrick after which he was sold to Vere Phillips.

Under his new name Bob Chaplin, the grey had his first start for the Tapner yard in a BE100 class in May 2016 and recorded his first win at the same level on his final outing for the season at Aldon.

He again headed the leaderboard in a BE100 class at Swalcliffe Park in March this year and in five national novice events and four CICs since then, has only once been out of the first six.