IRISH breeder Justin Burke has claimed the prestigious title of WBFSH Eventing Breeder of the Year for breeding HSH Blake, who tops the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) individual eventing horse rankings. By Tolan R out of Doughiska Lass (Kannan) and bred at Galway Bay Stud, HSH Blake (ISH) has risen from a promising young horse in Ireland, produced by Mary Mangan, to one of the world’s leading eventers under American rider Caroline Pamukcu.

Their achievements include individual gold at the 2023 Pan American Games, an appearance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, helping USA to team bronze at the 2026 World Championships in Aachen and, also in 2026, a second-place finish at Kentucky’s five-star event, followed by an impressive third-place finish at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials. His achievement is all the more special given it is only the third time in WBFSH rankings history that an Irish Sport Horse has ranked number one overall.

Susan Finnerty spoke with Burke for a feature this week (see page 83) and he told her: “He was just something special as a foal, a poser and he was always really, really friendly.

“It’s been a brilliant couple of weeks. I’ve been so lucky with horses. Unbelievable. They’ve totally transformed everything for me,” he said.

In related eventing news, the Irish Sport Horse Studbook has returned to the number one position on the Eventing World rankings, after finishing as runner-up in 2024 and 2025. The result marks the 25th time that the Irish Sport Horse has been world number one since the eventing rankings first started in 1994. See Susan’s extensive coverage on this topic on page 82.