YOU hear the name O’Callaghan and instantly think of Yeomanstown Stud, where world-class thoroughbreds have been produced for many years. But co-owner Annette has another impressive string to her bow as an owner of international event horses.

“All four of my sons (Peter, David, Guy and Robert) were in the Kildare Pony Club and they all represented their club on teams,” she told The Irish Field this week, describing how she found a love for eventing.

“I have some great memories from back in those days; I remember one of the highlights was back in 1993, Peter was a member of the Kildare team which won the British Championships, it was a really big deal at the time, no Irish team had managed it before. They were featured in Horse & Hound and everything; they were delighted and it was great fun for all involved.

“All the boys were also fortunate enough to be selected to compete on Irish international pony teams and got to represent Ireland at European Championship level; Peter in dressage and eventing and the other three in eventing. We were very lucky to have many great instructors at the time, Gisela Holstein lives nearby and was a fantastic help with the dressage.

“Guy had a great junior horse called Tommy Pink (Deroulede - Buckskin) and Robert had the talented Cashlyn Cavalier (High Roller - Las Olas (RID)), they were on the European Junior team which finished fourth in Germany in 2010. Robert spent his transition year in school working with Austin O’Connor in the UK, and then went back for another year after he finished school.

“We had lots of great days with the Pony Club, the IPS and Eventing Ireland, but as the boys got older they began to ride breeze-up for their father and I began to lose them to the thoroughbred side of things,” Annette explained.

Chance meeting

“It was in 2010 when we went to look at a horse for Robert that I first met Joseph (Murphy). Straight away I liked the way he rode and the way he worked with the horses. Later that year he approached me to see if I wanted to invest in a young horse called Electric Cruise.

“The owner was in his yard and was selling. I had done well out of another young event horse I’d had so I decided to reinvest. Joseph really believed in the horse and wanted to keep the ride so he asked a few of us to get together, and that is how I met Jill Andrews and Michelle Nelson, the co-owners.

“Electric Cruise, or Sparky, is by Cruising out of Kilnamac Sally and is now 20 years old. He is the horse of a lifetime. He launched Joseph, and us as owners, onto the international stage. He has brought us all over the world and given us so many fantastic days.

“He brought us to the Olympics, World Championships, five Badmintons, two European Championships, Pau and many, many five-star events. He is a phenomenal horse and is still thrilling us with his jumping in the invitational Derbys he does, his latest being in 2019. He doesn’t want to retire, he loves to compete.

“My best day as an owner would have to be the London Olympics in 2012 where he finished in 14th place. It was truly spectacular, it would be a hard event to beat.

“In 2015, we were looking around for a horse to come after Sparky, Louise Bloomer and Jinnie Webb had produced a nice gelding called Fernhill Frankie. I bought him and Joseph had several good placings on him. By 2019 he had told us that he didn’t want to do this at the highest level anymore and we sold him to Italy to a friend of Joseph’s wife who competes as an amateur on him.

“In 2019, I bought the six-year-old gelding Derroon Diplomat (Ricardo Z - Cruising). He is a very exciting prospect, he has provided excellent results in the young horse classes and won the seven- and eight-year-olds in Punchestown in 2020.

The Way Forward Syndicate

“Meanwhile, we were still on the lookout for another top horse for Joseph and we came across Caesar V. A few of us got together to form The Way Forward Syndicate and we bought him. He has been very lucky so far; not least by the fact that he was due to be on the truck that caught fire, and the only reason he wasn’t on board was because he had to stay behind to be vetted.

“He hit the ground running in order to be in with a chance of qualifying to be considered for the Tokyo Olympics. Thanks to good results at four-star events in Ballindenisk, Aachen and Boekelo he is on the long-list which is wonderful."

Joseph Murphy and Cesar V at Aachen CHIO \ Tomas Holcbecher

“The way things are, I can’t see owners being able to go to Tokyo, but I have complete confidence in Marcus Swail and the team that everything will be looked after correctly. Joseph works really hard; he never stops. He has a wonderful way of treating every horse as though it was an Olympian; and every owner as though they own an Olympic-level horse. He gives everything 100%.

“As well as enjoying the horses that Joseph rides, I’m also involved in the fantastic Mister Chance, my daughter-in-law’s wonderful mount.

"I joke that after all my boys stopped eventing I had to get one of them to marry a rider, which is where David’s wife Rolline comes into the picture.

“A friend of hers spotted Mister Chance on DoneDeal about six years ago and told us about him; he was owned by someone in the Carlow Pony Club and was 11 years old. We went to see him and after about five minutes decided to buy him and we haven’t looked back since.

“He is a legend. He won the amateurs’ in Tattersalls in 2018 and was runner-up in Grove and Annaharvey the same year, and he did his first one-star in Ballindenisk in 2019. Jane O’Flynn helps Rolline who has three children under four so is pretty busy.

“This past year has been a real challenge for everyone, I think David O’Brien and his committee have done a fabulous job and we as owners are so grateful to them.

“I think the format they used was fantastic; everyone had their times for dressage and show jumping was about an hour later, and the show jumping round was held before the cross-country which I think works better in a one-day event. The numbers were also limited to about 150 which was great. I know going forward this could be problematic but I think it showed how well it can work this way.

“One other thing I would love to see looked at is a grass roots qualifier for the amateurs in Badminton. Up to now you must travel to England to qualify and if we used a venue like Millstreet maybe it could be a great incentive for amateurs,” Annette concluded.