Isabel Hurley and Caitriona Murphy

RDS researcher Marcus O’Donnell, who is undertaking a three-year project funded by the RDS to identify the best horses - both mares and stallions - in Ireland is making significant progress.

So far O’Donnell’s research has uncovered a good ‘old Irish’ mare in Europe and highlighted one of the last of Clover Hill’s line, following a strong response to his recent appeal in The Irish Field to Irish mare owners and breeders for information on the country’s mare herd.

O’Donnell tracked down a Flagmount King mare who won at 1.40m level in Denmark and had been investigating the possibility of putting together a syndicate of people to possibly buy the mare back.

The 20-year-old mare jumped at 1.50m, won at 1.40m level and is a sister to a four-star event horse. The RDS researcher had mooted the possibility that if she were returned to Ireland, she could be bred herself or be used for embryo transfer.

However the mare’s current Danish owners have ruled this out, indicating that they want to keep her and will not sell.

Another of the top mares identified by O’Donnell is Olympic Clover, owned by Patrick Connolly from Tuam in Co Galway and in foal to Flexible.

Olympic Clover (Clover Hill x Sky Boy) is from the very last crop of Clover Hill’s foals and is the dam of the Zangershiede-approved stallion Olympic Cruz (by Cruising) who is eight years old and recently won a 1.45m class at Vlamertinge in Belgium under Lieven Devos.

Olympic Clover’s half-sister Mooreshill Judy is the dam of Grand Prix show jumper Point Two Elvis, while another half-sister, Khan Diamonds, is the grandam of Mullentine Loughall, who jumps for the Army Equitation School under Captain Michael Kelly.

Other members of Olympic Clover’s breeding line are Westwinds Cirracruise, Newmarket Venture Clover and Clarkes Ferro.

With just an estimated 200 good Irish sport horse mares left in Ireland, figures for the cream of the remaining crop are as low as 20, according to O’Donnell. A new group, dubbed the ‘super six’, is due to meet shortly in an effort to help ringfence these mares.

Meanwhile O’Donnell has compiled a list of Ireland’s top 33 traditional Irish stallions that have competed at 1.30m level and above and are currently available to Irish breeders at stud or via available semen. Nine of the top 10 are sired by either Cruising or Clover Hill, with Gypsy Duke accounting for one, while the top seven on the list have all won at 1.50m level or above in international competition.

In the number one spot on O’Donnell’s list is the Cruising-sired Flexible, winner of the World Cup CSI***** at 1.60m level. He is currently working on another list of promising stallions that are unproven but exceptionally well-related and The Irish Field understands that this will include Cruising’s clones Cruising Encore and Cruising Arish, among others.