“PREFAIRY? One of the best-bred thoroughbreds we had, by Precipitation out of Fairyary by Foxhunter,” the late Nenagh veterinary surgeon Jack Powell responded instantly, when I once asked him about the stallion.

Powell smiled as he recalled a Horse & Hound sales correspondent’s pithy remark about hoping the horse was not destined to be a ‘country stallion’ in Ireland. “If only every country stallion was a Prefairy,” he added.

Foaled in 1954, Prefairy, was yet another sourced by the Department of Agriculture’s Dick Jennings. “I think he was six or seven when he arrived here and soon afterwards, Dick Jennings tried to buy him back from my father,” says Matthew O’Meara, John’s older brother.

Both young brothers took over running the family’s Toomevara Stud, after their father Jim, who also ran the local post office and pub, passed away. “Prefairy’s fee was £100 for a thoroughbred mare and £50 for a half-bred, then if you had a nomination from the Department, that was worth about 25 quid,” Matthew explained.

Amongst the customers back then was Philip Heenan. “He’d arrive in a cattle lorry owned by Danny Flannery from Borrisokane. Philip would stay in the back of the lorry holding the mares. Moroccan buyers were at the show in Nenagh one year and Philip sold them the stallion Nero, then he bought Clover Hill and the rest is history,” he says, describing the late Heenan as a “genius in boots. There was nothing he didn’t know about nature.”

Astbury, Cool Affair, Troubled Times and the Thyestes Chase winner Monanore, bred by neighbour John Meagher, were amongst the racecourse winners produced by Prefairy. “Daddy bred Astbury out of a Soldado mare and he [Soldado] stood with Malcolm Wellington in Shinrone. The Prefairy-Soldado cross was as tough as iron, Col. Billy Ringrose liked that cross.”

JUMPERS

Among the show jumpers produced by Prefairy were Graham Fletcher’s Cool Customer, the Foxhunter champion Hold Hard and Fairly Cool, ridden by David Broome.

“We’d always watch out for him when show jumping was on television.” Another export was Fairy Fox, bred by Crossogue Equestrian Centre’s Tony Molloy. “He was third in Dublin as a three-year-old, then Elsie Morgan bought him. He was champion hunter at Cork, then reserve champion at Dublin before he was sold to Libya.”

It was their local vet Jack Powell who had the task of putting down 25-year-old Prefairy after the old stallion broke his shoulder while rolling in his stable.

Matthew has two broodmares now. “I have a Merry Mate mare and she goes back to Milestone and Pinzari. She has a filly foal by Golden Master, who is out of a Prefairy dam. The other mare is Johnny Hoolan’s breed, she’s by Carrabawn View and her great granddam is the Boston Burglar.”

John Hoolan, who lives in nearby Dunkerrin, bred Pride Of Shaunlara, famous worldwide amongst Irish Draught enthusiasts. The Suma Stud stallion combined both of the O’Meara stallion’s bloodlines in Milestone and Prefairy, Boston Burglar’s sire.

Milestone was bought as a foal at foot with his Royal Gem dam, Dooree Maid. John remembers the young chesnut colt working in harness, alongside his dam. “He was a really gentle horse, never mean,” he said.

Although the quest to find that elusive photograph of Milestone continues, there is no shortage of his descendants with over 10,000 recorded worldwide. And his influence is found everywhere as Matthew found when he presented the Milestone Cup, in memory of their late parents Jim and Sheila, at the IDHBA national show. “Liam Lynskey, who won it the first year, told me his filly [Strictly Come Bouncing] goes back to Milestone too!”

From a family of eight, John and another brother, David, both live in America. Another US export is the Huntingfield Rebel stallion sold last year to North Carolina by Matthew’s son, James. “I’d like to go to Kentucky one day,” said Matthew.

Although the Bluegrass State is not short of Irish working in its bloodstock industry, the Toomevara brothers are unique in their links to two Irish foundation sires. And of course, the racehorse that went to Rio.