HE is the enigmatic grey that won an Olympic team gold medal for Oliver Townend at the Tokyo Olympics and is the highest-earning event horse since Hippomundo rankings began.
Ballaghmor Class won his first Burghley title in 2017 and has since joined an elite group of eventing greats with four five-star event wins in his career.
He has won again at Burghley (2023), plus both of the North American five-star events - Kentucky (2021) and Maryland International (2024). Next week, Ballaghmor Class bids to go one better at Badminton than his two previous runner-up places.
How many event horses ever get to compete at Badminton, or any five-star, once in a lifetime? It all helps put what Ballaghmor Class has achieved into perspective and adds to his valid claim for ‘Greatest Of All Time’ consideration.
“If we went back to the long format tomorrow, he’d still come out on top; he’s a fighter. Whatever era you put this horse in, he will win,” Townend declared.
And he’s Irish-bred. Since Vanir Kamira and Cooley Master Class have retired, Irish Sport Horse five-star winner numbers have started to dwindle, bar Townend’s Irish-bred campaigners.
The 2024 Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L winner Cooley Rosalent is another of his string and his second Badminton entry this year. Bred by Woods Rosbotham, and by his own stallion Valent, the mare is the other great grey hope at keeping the Irish-bred flag flying at five-star level.
Oliver Townend himself is a major part in the success story of Ballaghmor Class and numerous other Irish-breds at Gadlas Farm.
Five-star horses are a rare group, often with inbuilt quirks, and Townend has always told it as it is about his top horses, often with a dollop of his trademark wry humour.
The down-to-earth Yorkshireman has one of the sharpest grasps of pedigrees and horse breeding amongst his five-star competitors. Much of that knowledge and affinity to Irish bloodlines comes from his father Alan, a longtime customer of Irish-breds.
It’s a two-way street as Irish Sport Horses have contributed largely to Townend being the FEI’s top-ranked eventing rider five times (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023).
“Means the world”
Then there’s the owners. Bar five-star level, there are very few financial rewards in eventing prize money. Selling horses is one way and then there’s that owner or group of owners who dig in for the longhaul.
Ballaghmor Class is owned in partnership by New Zealand-born Karyn Shuter, appointed this year as the US Eventing High Performance Advisor; Angela Hislop, who owned two more Irish-breds - the dual Kentucky 5* winner Cooley Master Class and Cooley SRS, Oliver’s European team gold medallist horse; and Val Ryan, whose Lanfranco won the CIC3* at Ballindenisk in 2017 for Townend.
He paid tribute to the trio at last year’s Maryland press conference, after their horse’s fourth five-star win, saying: “I’m very, very happy for his owners, Karyn Shuter, who’s a massive part of my life, and I wouldn’t still be an event rider without her, and Angela Hislop and Val Ryan. We’ve been on a massive journey with the horse and couldn’t be prouder of him.”
Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class on their lap of honour at the Mars Maryland 5-Star in Fair Hill \ Shannon Brinkman Photography
Earlier in 2024, the connections made the difficult decision to withdraw Ballaghmor Class from consideration for the Paris Olympics.
“As his preparation for a long-format event in the first half of the season was interrupted, we could not secure the final qualification for the Olympics without compromising his best interests. This is so disappointing for the whole team, but Thomas means the world for us and, at the end of the day, his welfare and happiness is more important than everything else.”
‘Thomas’ already had one Olympic appearance on his CV, notching up an individual fifth place and team gold medal at Tokyo.
“To think the two of them coming together for Tokyo – the son of a milkman from Yorkshire and a horse born in a haybarn in Co Limerick – and to have the whole world looking at them, it’s absolutely amazing. It’s just the best story,” said Carol Hickey, whose late father Noel bred Ballaghmor Class.
Val Ryan, Angela Hislop and Karyn Shuter (left of picture) at the 2017 Landrover Burghley presentation with winning rider Oliver and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh \ Susan Finnerty
Back to the beginning
Carol also provided a photo of herself and Noel, breeder of this top-earning Irish-bred event horse, taken in front of the restored thatched cottage. It was where the “proud Clareman and GAA fanatic!” according to his daughter, retired back to after working in England.
Noel passed away in 2014, three years before Ballaghmor Class and Oliver’s first Burghley win. With the help of Tom Meagher, who stood Courage II at Kedrah House Stud, and Limerick horseman Noel Kett, most of the details were pieced together for a special Tokyo Olympics breeding feature in The Irish Field. All bar the definite breeding of Kilderry Place, the dam of Ballaghmor Class.
“Noel Hickey and his neighbour John Meade went to a sale to sell a foal. Noel saw a mare that he fancied and John persuaded him to buy it. The mare had just sold a really good-looking foal at the sale, but she was not back in foal,” Tom recalled.
“She didn’t have a passport, but it was on the word of the old man who sold her that she was believed to have been Young Convinced xx, I’m a Star xx and a Draught mare. This could not be verified and was never recorded on her passport.
“After they brought the mare home they rang Willie Kett, a local renowned horseman, to pick out a stallion to suit this mare. Willie agreed she was a good-looking, athletic mare and he said there was only one horse for her: Courage II.”
Willie was sent to Meagher’s Cahir base to negotiate a “pensioners rate” for Kilderry Place and, after much negotiation with Tom, a deal was struck. “And this is how Ballaghmor Class came to be!
“When the colt foal was born, Willie Kett and Noel Hickey returned with Kilderry Place and Ballaghmor Class, the foal at foot, to be covered again by Courage. Sadly, the mare did not go back in foal and her owner Noel got ill and unfortunately he had to sell the mare.”
Cappamore man Willie Kett completed more of the jigsaw pieces in 2021.
According to him, Noel and John Meade went to a horse sale somewhere in Cork, where they came across Kilderry Place.
“Noel spotted this mare and foal and couldn’t take his eyes off them. The man came from up the Nenagh side and said the mare was Ballinvella or Young Convinced out of an I’m A Star-Draught mare. It could never be proven, as she had no book.
“The foal made little money, but Noel kept on about the lovely-looking mare and, between the two of them [Noel and John], they bought her for 400 quid. My involvement was saying Courage would suit her down to the ground.
“You’d think she was a thoroughbred, swan neck, big, kind eye with a little feather on her fetlock. She was not your average three-quarter bred mare, she was a blood mare and looked the real thing. She looked way bigger than she was. She’d fool you until you walked into her and you’d see she was only 16 hands,” said Kett, describing Kilderry Place.
A good grounding
There was an informal three-way split between the trio over the Courage II foal. “He had a bit of class about him as a foal. Even then he was grey with flecks and at six or seven weeks old, he’d jump the electric fence and jump back in to the mare when he saw you coming.”
‘Thomas’, the last foal of Kilderry Place, returned to Kedrah House Stud when Tom and his wife Magette purchased the weanling.
“As a three-year-old, he was produced by Thomas Quigley of Kellistown Stud at the RDS where he finished in second place in the Future Event Horse class, pipped by a small margin by a mare [Dance With A Stranger] owned by veterinary colleague and friend, Jim Tempany from Sligo.”
Kedrah House Stud sold Ballaghmor Class that autumn at the special event horse sale at Tattersalls, organised by the late George Mernagh, to Kathy Charlton and Judy Tobin.
Incidentally, Kathy, who knew Oliver from their time spent working in Kenneth Clawson’s show jumping yard, also owned Noble Class (Cappa Cassanova x Aristocracy), the 2015 Dublin potential event horse final winner.
‘Thomas’, the previous Dublin runner-up got a good Irish grounding, having hunted with the Fingal Harriers and Ward Union, plus they competed in the FEHL series and National Discovery Final before the horse joined Townend’s string.
The pair’s first British Eventing (BE) entry was at Kelsall Hill in September 2012 when they placed third in a BE100 class. Ballaghmor Class also has 120 Eventing Ireland (EI) points, 80 earned for his fourth place in The Irish Field CCI3* at Tattersalls International in 2017.
Later that year, came the first of those four five-star wins at Burghley, where the now 18-year-old recorded second (in 2018) and third places (2019). Ballaghmor Class has also gathered close to 3,000 BE points and over €650,000 in prize money, plus earned that Olympic team gold medal.
Then there’s his two Badminton CCI5*-L second places.
Could it be third time lucky? Michael Jung spoke about that vital element - luck - in his post-Kentucky press conference last Sunday after his win with fischerChipmunk FRH.
If luck is on his side at Badminton next week, the story of Ballaghmor Class gets another rewrite. Regardless of possible outcomes though, the Limerick grey has already proven himself to be the horse of a lifetime for so many of his connections.
The Kilderry Place mystery
FIFTY-two - the number of hours logged in phone calls and research back during the summer of 2021 in an attempt to confirm which one of Philip Heenan’s stallions was the sire of Kilderry Place for the Tokyo breeding feature.
Here’s what was pieced together then: although often mentioned as a possible suspect, Young Convinced could not be the sire of Kilderry Place. She was foaled in 1990; he in 1991.
Possibly the reason why his name cropped up in the back story in the first instance was if her colt foal at foot in the Cork sale was by Young Convinced. That would fit.
Next suspect: Ballinvella, or even possibly his son ‘Young Ballinvella’ (the one with Final Problem in his pedigree).
This timeframe is possible. According to IHR Online, Ballinvella produced no less than 123 foals in 1990, the same year as Kilderry Place was foaled.
Why though is this hypothetical filly foal out of the I’m A Star x Irish Draught mare not amongst them? Ballinvella was registered with the Irish Sport Horse studbook so registration should have been straightforward.
(If a Ringroe stallion was registered in Weatherbys Non-Thoroughbred Register (WNTR), some breeders were less likely to register foals).
Then there’s Willie Kett’s description of Kilderry Place; a blood-type bay mare of 16 hands.
Ballinvella did throw bays, however the typical Ballinvella was usually his mottled liver chesnut colour. Shane Breen’s Macho Man was a carbon copy of Ballinvella’s stock, workmanlike but generally, they were not blood types.
World-class eventers
I’m A Star, produced lovely, three-quarter bred sorts. Coolgreen Star, bred by the late Pat Gleeson, was a template for an Irish show hunter and there were several world-class eventers such as Star Appeal, Comanche and Moon Man by Sean Walshe’s thoroughbred.
I’ve seen up close the four Courage II offspring that went to the Olympics: Ballaghmor Class, Cooley Rorkes Drift, Ringwood Sky Boy and The Duke of Cavan. Physically, Ringwood Sky Boy is the closest phenotype match to Ballaghmor Class, the only grey, like his sire, amongst the group. Tim Price’s 2019 Burghley winner has a straight line of thoroughbreds in his damline including Sky Boy, Ozymandias and Prince Rois.
Could a mare with Ballinvella, I’m A Star and pure Irish Draught bloodlines, crossed with Courage II, produce the likes of Ballaghmor Class, a horse Townend has said would not look out of place in the parade ring at a race meeting? Anything is possible in horse breeding, as well we know. It just feels unlikely.
What we also know is that there is no Ballinvella – I’m A Star bay filly foaled in 1990 in IHR Online records and Kilderry Place’s three IHR-recorded foals - all colts, including Thomas - were by Gerry’s Clover (ISH), Tjipke (KWPN) and Courage II (HOLST).
Weatherbys were extremely helpful that summer but have no record of Kilderry Place, bar the DNA work carried out for those three colt foals.
There were at least two other earlier foals; that colt foal at foot the day Kilderry Place was bought (possibly by Young Convinced) and Carol then found a note in her father’s records about a Robertstown Boy VII (Young Leabeg, there were many ‘Youngs’ in Philip Heenan’s yard!) colt out of Kilderry Place, foaled in 1997.
Which then rules out Leabeg as her sire.
Leabeg stock, popular with show horse and American hunter customers, were more similar in type to Ballaghmor Class than those of Ballinvella. Leabeg had 44 foals registered in 1990, he mostly threw chesnuts but some bays.
Some parts of the puzzle fitted, until the news about Kilderry Place producing a ‘Young Leabeg’ foal ruled that bloodline out.
And then, running through the list of Leabeg’s stable companions in 1989, a possible ‘Eureka moment’: Could her sire be Farhaan? A beautifully-bred thoroughbred by Shirley Heights, he found his way to Ringroe, via Charlie Swan, who was then an apprentice in Kevin Prendergast’s yard where Farhaan was in training.
Bay, threw blood types, not overly big, often with - and no pun intended - a swan neck and an inbuilt speed gene. As he wasn’t approved in the Irish Sport Horse studbook, Ringroe customers often registered Farhaan foals with Weatherbys (or not at all).
Could Kilderry Place be by Farhaan? Without DNA proof, we’ll never know for certain. Only the late Philip Heenan and the old man “from up Nenagh side” knew the full story.
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By the numbers