THE good run of Britain’s Tom McEwen continued last weekend at the FEI WBFSH eventing world championships for young horses at Le Lion d’Angers where, improving from third after dressage, through second following cross-country, he won the gold medal in the CCI3*-L for seven-year-olds on the Irish Sport Horse gelding Brookfield Danny de Muze.

Bred in Co Meath by Donal Callery out of the Ashfield Bobby Sparrow mare Gortglass Sparrow (See Breeders’ 10, page 85), the son of I’m Special de Muze was purchased from Northern Ireland’s Brian Douglas as a three-year-old by Ciaran Moran and his wife Alyson Keane of MK Sport Horses in Co Wexford. The Bridgetown couple produced him the next year for the Young Eventhorse Series.

They didn’t have him too long after that. “Brian Lusk got in touch following Forth Mountain and he arrived in one morning with John and Chloe Perry. They and Alison Swinburn are good clients of Brian’s, like a specific type and I only had to pop him over four fences when they made up their minds and bought him. I’ll always remember that day as I had to rush back to the yard from being with Aly in hospital where our son Mack (now three) had just been born!”

Lusk, who has put many a successful horse through his hands, said of Brookfield Danny de Muze, “He’s a very good one”. The gelding first went over to Piggy French and ended the 2024 season under her with a second-place finish in the CCI2*-S at Osberton in early October. This season, with McEwen in the saddle, he has competed eight times on the British national circuit and, prior to Le Lion, finished second in a CCI2*-L at Bicton before winning a CCI3*-S at Alnwick.

Foot-perfect

“I’m delighted for the owners Chloe and John Perry and Alison Swinburn (who were all present),” said McEwen. “I am really pleased for the horse who has been going really well all year.

“I haven’t run him much because the ground has been so hard in the UK.

"I felt we made a few mistakes on Thursday in the dressage, but he was brilliant yesterday and jumped foot-perfect today.

"It’s really nice for the owners, who are unbelievably good at coming second and third.”

McEwen, who is competing the same owners’ ISH gelding Brookfield Quality (OBOS Quality 004 – Bay Coffey Cavalier, by Cavalier Royale) in the CCI5*-L at Pau this weekend, added of the newly-crowned champion: “He’s a very modern-day sport horse. He’s got a great gallop and, as you saw today, a fantastic jump – so for me, he’s the full package. The course today was very open and then went a bit twisty, and I could easily catch up time later on just because he’s so quick to turn around.”

With two fences down show jumping, England-based Australian international Kevin McNab finished 10th in this seven-year-old championship with the Billy Daly-bred ISH mare Newmarket Amy (Newmarket Jewel – Sanforized, by Catcher In The Rye) on whom he was second of 49 to the Joseph Murphy-partnered 14-year-old Barberstown Castle Rehy in the CCI3*-S at Millstreet earlier this year.