MOLLY Malone V, the grey mare who stole the heart of show jumping lovers around the world, has been retired from the sport.

Bertram Allen announced this week that the 15-year-old Kannan-sired mare would make her way to the breeding paddock after a long and illustrious career at the very top level of the sport.

“Molly propelled me to the top of our sport at a very young age, and for that, I will be eternally grateful. We now look forward to the future where Molly will enter a new era of her career as a breeding mare,” Allen said when announcing her retirement.

Allen burst onto the scene as a teenager in 2012 with the striking Molly, who was purchased by Bertram’s father, Bert, at the Sunshine Tour as a five-year-old. She was subsequently produced by Billy Twomey and Anthony Condon before Allen took over the reins after finishing his pony career.

The British-bred mare helped Allen win an individual silver medal at the 2013 Junior European Championships in Vejer de la Frontera. Just a year later when Bertram was just 18 years old, they amazingly won the Longines Grand Prix of Ireland at the Dublin Horse Show.

After that sensational win, he told The Irish Field: “Molly Malone was fantastic. We have a good connection and she gives her best for me. When we got her she was just five, Anthony Condon and Billy Twomey did a fantastic job producing her. I took over the ride on her when she was eight and we haven’t look back since.”

Senior championships

The pair were then selected on the Irish team for 2014 World Equestrian Games, their first senior championship, and won the opening speed round, eventually finishing seventh overall. Other huge results that season included winning the five-star Grand Prix in Lummen and finishing fifth in the Rolex Grand Prix in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

2015 saw them selected for another championship – the Europeans in Aachen, and a third place finish at the World Cup Final in Las Vegas, when Bertram was aged only 19, cemented their status as one of the world’s leading combinations.

Another five-star Grand Prix victory beckoned, this time Dinard in France.

The pair continued to land multiple five-star victories around the world and other Grand Prix wins included Verona, Stockholm and Geestern.

Her retirement comes just one month after she finished fifth in a 1.55m class at the Global Champions Tour in Chantilly, France. Her last show was the Brussels Masters at the end of August.

Astonishingly, no other rider has ridden the mare in competition since Bertram took over in 2012. The mare was a firm favourite among the public throughout her career and will be missed in the show ring by all, especially her loyal groom Marleen Schanwell.