THERE’s no better place to start our 2023 musings than with the 50th Irish Horse World awards lunch which was held at The K Club on Tuesday, March 7th and was reported on extensively by Judith Faherty the following Saturday.
Former Irish Field Editor's Grania Willis, Siobhan English, Sasha Geraghty, Irish Field editor Leo Powell, Caitriona Morrissey and current editor Isabel Hurley \ Lorraine O'Sullivan
Leo Powell, editor of The Irish Field,welcomed Minister Martin Heydon, industry stakeholders and the award winners to the lunch, commenting “What an occasion, 50 years and still growing and going strong”. The Irish Field was founded 153 years ago, in 1870, and the Irish Horse World was later introduced by Valentine Lamb and edited first by Averil Douglas.
Disappointingly, Averil was unable to attend the awards lunch, but present to enjoy the occasion, and accept commemorative medals from Leo Powell, were the five subsequent editors – Grania Willis (1980 to 2003), Siobhan English (2003 to 2010), Sasha Geraghty/Freyne (2010 to 2015), Caitriona Murphy/Morrissey (2015 to 2016) and Isabel Hurley.
The last-named, who took over the position in 2016, thanked the industry for the role they play, saying: ‘You are there for us, and likewise you know we (The Irish Field) are always there for you. Every horse person has a dream, whether they are a rider or a breeder, it starts with a dream. We have had a wonderful journey over the last 50 years’.
We would have expected Isabel to be in situ for many more years but, in an Irish Horse World editorial on August 19th, we learned that she was leaving to follow a dream of her own, studying veterinary medicine, with Judith Faherty taking over the role of Irish Horse World editor, supported by Lesley Hunter-Nolan and Bree Rutledge.
There was further change to come. On page three of September 23rd, Leo Powell wrote ‘This is my last editorial in The Irish Field. If my maths is correct, it is my 1,045th. I have never missed one... I vacate the editor’s chair, but am taking a more comfortable seat, that of contributing editor’. He went on to write that Mark Costello would fill the role of editor (which was confirmed the following Saturday), while Lesley Hunter-Nolan and Bree Rutledge moved into the positions of acting editor and journalist with the Irish Horse World when Judith Faherty went on maternity leave in mid-October.
Martin Donohoe of Goresbridge Horse Sales
Winds of change fail to disrupt Ireland’s
buoyant sales market xx
MANY pages of the Irish Horse World are devoted to sales, with results supplied by the various auction houses themselves while most of the previews and reports, apart from those dealing with Connemaras, are written by Sally Parkyn.
In her final report of 2023, that on the Goresbridge December Sport Horse Sale, which appeared in the issue of Saturday, December 9th, Parkyn wrote: ‘Last week’s one-day sale at Goresbridge may not have been the best of the season’s renewals, but it was significant in that it not only marked the close of the sales year for the Co Kilkenny auction house, but also the end of the tenure of owner Martin Donohoe and his wife Mary Frances. Following several decades at the helm, the couple are handing the reins over to Martin’s brother Edmund, who will move into his new position at the beginning of next year’.
While always involved with the family business, Martin didn’t take over financial control of the company until 2000 when he set about building a new indoor school and upgraded the outdoor arenas and restaurant facilities. Having held a number of thoroughbred sales, of mainly National Hunt horses, in 2006, Goresbridge ran the first breeze-up sale in Ireland (which was subsequently merged with Tattersalls and moved to Co Meath) and, four years later, introduced the concept of a dedicated sale of pre-selected event horses. Since 2011, the highly-successful Go For Gold Sale has been staged in Barnadown and the Amber Springs Hotel.
Many great sport horses have been traded through the Co Kilkenny sales ring and there’s no doubt that the company does its best to attain the highest prices they can for their vendors. However, as they step back, Martin and Mary Frances must enjoy the story of the €850 Goresbridge thoroughbred sales graduate Hewick who, in the care of Co Carlow trainer Shark Hanlon, has won four hurdle races and six chases including, most recently, the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day. A 2015 gelding by Virtual, Hewick is out of the unraced Ballyburn Rose (by Oscar), who was sold twice at Goresbridge.
Written by Isabel Hurley, the first sales report of 2023 appeared on January 7th and covered the ‘Smashing trade of over €1.5 million at Ballypatrick’ while the final report was from this year’s renewal of the same sale with the heading ‘€1.19 million paid for auction topper’.
Anne Bradley and her wonderful 30-year-old horse Meadow Flight, aka Pedro \ Radka Preislerova
Focus on transitioning thoroughbreds
AS The Irish Field prides itself on its extensive coverage of both the thoroughbred and sport horse sectors, it makes sense that the paper does all it can to promote the work of those engaged in finding second careers for former racehorses.
These include the Irish Horse Welfare Trust, Racehorse to Riding Horse Ireland, the British and Irish Thoroughbred Agency and Treo Eile. The last-named group works closely with the major sport horse bodies and this year sponsored four arena eventing leagues and provided thoroughbred bonuses for the Young Event Horse Series.
Throughout 2023, Treo Eile worked with the Irish Pony Club, Dressage Ireland, Eventing Ireland, Show Jumping Ireland, the All Ireland Polo Club and the Irish Polocrosse Association providing sponsorship in various forms for the highest-placed thoroughbreds at different levels. The organisation also joined forces with Tattersalls Ireland through the Showing Pathway Series, which saw its sponsorship extended to 19 shows throughout the country, catering for novice and open racehorses in their second career, with a final at the Royal Meath Show in early September.
Treo Eile also worked with the Association of Irish Riding Clubs, which has long held classes – both on the flat and over jumps – for ex-racehorses at its annual Festival, with various racecourses for parades while it rounded off the year with its Christmas Show at the Emerald Equestrian Centre, Co Kildare on December 14th.
While thoroughbreds rarely race on in their teens, and it’s important to find other careers, for geldings in particular, age is no barrier in other equestrian disciplines. In the issue of Saturday, April 29th we read of the win in the 80cm spring league at Warrington of Anne Bradley and her 30-year-old bay gelding Meadow Flight (aka Pedro).
Coverage from the courts
IT would be fair to say that most readers were shocked and disturbed by reports carried in the Irish Horse World under the headings ‘Murder case against Creswell adjourned’ and ‘Murder accused Creswell returned for trial’ in the issues of April 8th and May 27th and ‘Rich Fellers pleads guilty to abusing a minor’ on Saturday, July 22nd.
Another report carried in these pages, which would have upset many, was that which appeared in the issue of Saturday, February 25th covering proceedings at the Dublin District Coroner’s Court earlier in the week, ‘Inquest: Tiggy’s death a ‘very tragic accident’’.
The courtroom featured as the field of play from early in the year – ‘Judge dismisses case against equestrian centre’ (January 21st), ‘Four men charged over equine slaughter fraud case’ (January 28th), ‘Fifth man is charged in equine slaughter fraud case’ (February 11th), ‘145k court settlement’ (May 13th), ‘Court clash over pony ‘cataract row’’ (September 9th) and ‘Rider wins damages over injured horse’ (October 14th).
Then there was the report carried in the issue of Saturday, September 16th covering a case taken to the Workplace Relations Commission, ‘Yard manager wins unfair dismissal case’.
Geraldine Ruane, former Chief Executive of the RDS
Movements from within the RDS
IN a news report jointly written by Isabel Hurley and Judith Faherty on Saturday, July 22nd, just three weeks or so ahead of the Dublin Horse Show, we read: ‘Geraldine Ruane, chief executive officer of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) is understood to have departed the organisation unexpectedly this week. The first female CEO of the RDS in its almost 300-year history took up the role in October 2020’.
In a follow-up report, on September 2nd, we learned: ‘The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) has appointed Liam Kavanagh as its interim chief executive following the departure of former chief executive Geraldine Ruane last month ...
‘Ruane declined to comment on her departure to The Irish Field and the RDS did not respond to a request for comment at the time, but subsequently confirmed she had stepped down “after her very successful tenure” as chief executive since 2021.
“The Board of the RDS wishes to express their particular gratitude to Geraldine for her successful stewardship of a number of key capital and strategic business projects” their statement read’.
DAFM, HSI and IHB make headlines
HORSE Sport Ireland, the Irish Horse Board and a TD all vied for coverage in the news pages of the Irish Horse World throughout 2023.
The TD was, of course, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, whose photograph appeared regularly in these pages. In fact, two photographs of the Donegal Fianna Fáil TD appeared on the same page in the issue of July 15th, one of him posing with Juliette Owens over the story ‘€1.3m Dublin Horse Show launched’ and the other under the headline ‘Minister welcomes the return of eventing series’.
Let’s next recall some of the very many headlines regarding Horse Sport Ireland in 2023: ‘Mass meeting of HSI affiliates this weekend’ (Saturday, January 14th), ‘Affiliates seek meeting with HSI Board (January 21st, when there was also an article headed ‘Breeders have their say over fees hike’, which was in relation to increased registration fees announced by HSI in Christmas week 2022).
And so it continued, ‘HSI launch sustainability survey’ (March 25th), ‘€200,000 HSI Studbook series launched’ (April 29th), ‘DAFM – “intention is to consolidate position” of Horse Sport Ireland’ and ‘HSI take to the road to inform breeders’ (June 10th), ‘HSI faces tough questions’ and ‘Ring queries proposed changes to board’ (June 24) and ‘HSI seeking extra €1.5 million in Budget 2024’ (September 9).
There was little room for anything other than HSI matters in the issue of Saturday, September 23rd, ‘HSI investigation findings released’, ‘Affiliates seeking clarity on HP Budgets’ and ‘“Seismic rift” between HSI and affiliates’. And more, ‘HSI finances in “fragile” state’ (October 21st), ‘Sally Corscadden departs HSI’ and ‘Jackman appointed acting head of High Performance Sport’ (November 4th), ‘Passport delay concerns reach Minister’ (November 11th), ‘HSI slammed over passports’ (November 18th) and ‘Duggan says funding claims “inaccurate”’ (November 25th).
As the Irish Horse Board settled into its new offices in Portlaoise, the organisation began to make headlines of its own. ‘New era for Irish Horse Board’ (April 8th), ‘IHB marketing plan off to flying start’ (May 6th), ‘No disagreements between HSI and Irish Horse Board’ (June 24th), ‘IHB hits ground running with new flagship stand’ (August 12th) and ‘Inaugural IHB promotion and marketing conference was a huge success’ (November 25th)
Then there were the headlines that tied both organisations together as former HSI staff joined the IHB. ‘Alison Corbally appointed Director General of IHB’ (Saturday, April 22nd), ‘Brian Hennessy joins the Irish Horse Board’ (July 8th) and ‘Nadia Rea new IHB Operations Manager’ (August 5th). Hennessy featured later in the year under the headline ‘Former staffer sues Horse Sport Ireland’ (December 23rd).
Remembering lost friends and family
FROM the start to the end of the year, the Irish Horse World carried the sad news of deaths among the equestrian community.
Some were more sudden than others. ‘Shock at tragic death of Colin Prime in Belfast’ was the headline over a report carried on Saturday, March 11th, with the death of Glenway Riding Club member Heather Hewitt in an accident when mounting a horse being covered in the issue of Saturday, April 15th.
Nations Cup plan a ‘mortal sin’
THE Olympic disciplines of dressage, eventing and show jumping, at both national and international level in 2023, have been well covered in these pages over the past few weeks leaving little to be mentioned here.
However, having re-read Judith Faherty’s report ‘Solution reached in Nations Cup series’, which was carried in the issue of Saturday, June 3rd, we were again struck by the Healy-Reaesque comment of Ireland’s senior team manager Michael Blake, who was speaking in Rome following the Nations’ Cup win of Mikey Pender, Jack Ryan, Michael Duffy and Denis Lynch. Perhaps a career in politics lies ahead.
‘“Uliano (Vessani, course designer) hit the nail on the head when he said the Nations Cup is a competition of two rounds. We are under attack from our governing body, they are trying to dismember the Nations Cup and make it one round, and I don’t feel one bit bad about saying here that that is a cardinal and mortal sin. We cannot tolerate that,” he said.
Animal welfare funding only part of the puzzle
SADLY, the Irish Horse World continues to report on animal welfare issues and court cases involving same but, it was good to read on Saturday, July 1st, that ‘McConalogue opens animal welfare funding’.
This was followed, on July 29th, by Isabel Hurley reporting ‘McConalogue keen to push horse welfare forward’ while, on December 16th, Lesley Hunter-Nolan informed readers that ‘Equine charities in line for €500k funding’.
However, it would require a lot more funding and strengthened legislation to see the end of headlines such as that which appeared on December 2nd, ‘Homes urgently needed for rescued equines’.
Horse Sport Arena plan prompts petition
ONE topic which resulted in letters being written to the editor, and an online petition, was that covered by Judith Faherty in the issue of Saturday, May 6th, ‘National Horse Sport Arena to be removed under plan’.
A week later the same writer revealed, ‘No plans to relocate National Horse Sport Arena on campus’ with the Minister of State for Sport, Thomas Byrne, having his say in the issue of June 10th, ‘Minister shows support for retention of the National Horse Sport Arena’.
McMahon unveils Pacino clone
SHOW jumper and stallion master Clem McMahon was interviewed by Judith Faherty in the issue of Saturday, February 18th under the headline: ‘McMahon unveils Pacino clone’.
The 2020 bay Pacino II, and his Co Monaghan owner/breeder, featured on the front cover of The Irish Field’s Sport Horse Stallions 2023 guide, which was published on April 1st and on that same week’s cover of The Irish Field itself.