Liscalgot (Touchdown – Tulla’s Pride)

DERMOTT Lennon’s former world champion Liscalgot started her breeding career at the age of 12 and quantifying the number of progeny from the Touchdown mare, across numerous studbooks, is no easy task.

One thing for sure is the mare, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 25, has passed on her talent to the next generations and nowadays, many of her grandchildren are jumping successfully at the top of the sport, plenty of them still produced here in Ireland by Lennon.

Bred by Terence Harvey in 1991 out of Tulla’s Pride, Liscalgot arrived to Lennon as a four-year-old and together the pair reached enormous heights. They were part of the gold medal-winning Irish team at the European Championships in Arnhem, Holland, in 2001. Between 2000 and 2001, they were part of nine winning Nations Cup teams, including the Aga Khan at the Dublin Horse Show and Spruce Meadows in Canada.

They won numerous Grands Prix around the world, including Modena, Italy (2001) Stockholm, Sweden (2001) and the World Cup qualifier in Dortmund, Germany (2002), but their greatest moment was being crowned world champions in Jerez, Spain, in 2002.

Sadly, her glistening career was cut short when she was injured aged 12, but the sporting loss was breeding’s gain and she began an exception career as a broodmare. Just 10 of her many progeny are registered on the Irish Horse Register, including 1.60m performer Calgot Pleasure, Calgot Hero (1.50m) and Vivalgot (1.60m), all bred by Timpan Ltd in Co Armagh. Breeder Luc Henry also had a big influence on her breeding career in Belgium.

“Shirley (Liscalgot) was so incredibly lucky for us when she was in the sport, and that continues by what she has passed on, by producing an amazing standard of above average jumpers,” Sandra Lennon told The Irish Field.

“We find that a lot of them have some of her traits, I think it is more obvious in mares. The mares nearly strike us as a copy of her, they are even like her in the stable.

“She was very smart, sensitive and very intelligent and many of her offspring come across like that. She passed her jumping qualities to the mares and geldings, but personality wise we see it more with the mares.”

Favourite

Dermott has ridden many of her progeny up to the top level of the sport, but does he have a favourite? “He is not really one for making statements like that,” Sandra says with a smile, “but he has a mare at the minute called All Pleasure Hero Z, her mother is Calgot Pleasure who is a daughter of Liscalgot. I know he thinks a lot of her; she will take a bit of time to produce, she is very sensitive,” she said of the eight-year-old by Aganix du Seigneur who was bred in Ireland by HPBNL Horse Invest Ltd.

“A lot of them we had to sell along the way… that is our business, and often the most exciting ones get sold. Another one recently sold was Athletix Hero Z who Dermott had in Dublin as a seven-year-old. He was just sold on the Sunshine Tour to the United States, that was one that Dermott produced right up through the levels,” she said of the 10-year-old Aganix gelding who is out of Liscalgot’s daughter Class of Touch Hero, and bred by Gerry Marron and Luc Henry.

His FEI records shows in recent weeks he was ridden at the Winter Equestrian Festival by USA’s Brian Moggre and Cork’s Simon McCarthy. Sandra adds: “At the minute, we have a lot of younger stock not even under saddle yet, so fingers crossed there are more to come for Dermott to ride himself.

“It is a very special story to have so many offspring of Liscalgot. I get so much more excited when it is one out of her, it makes it very special.

"The last foal she had herself here was Vivalgot (by Vivaldo van het Costersveld) and we have him with Mario Prieto in Portugal, he jumps Nations Cup classes.”

Mo Chroi (Cruising X Mr Lord) (TIH)

Claire McDonnell’s wonderful home-bred mare Mo Chroi retired after one last five-star win at the Dublin Horse Show in 2014, following what was a phenomenal career for the Army Equitation School under riders Gerry Flynn, David O’Brien and Michael Kelly.

The year 2007 was particularly special for Mo Chroi. With Flynn in the saddle, she jumped on seven Nations Cup teams and won three of them in Linz, Poznan and Drammen, where she was double clear. The same year she won the five-star Grand Prix in Dublin and international Grands Prix in Drammen, Lisbon and Vimero.

Claire reports that Flynn visits Mo Chroi, who is “hale and hearty at the age of 25”, at their Ballymooney Park Stud in Kilbride, Co Wicklow once a year.

Once she retired aged 17, Claire set about taking embryos and breeding foals and she now has three progeny out jumping, all by Diamant de Semilly; two 2015 grey fillies Maggie Mae I and Rose Marie I and the 2015 chesnut gelding Gatsby 1.

“They are all showing great promise,” Claire told The Irish Field. “Mo Chroi passed something on to all of them; they all jump, they are brave, very correct and blood.” Claire has not yet gone down the breeding route with the two mares.

Talking about Mo Chroi, who was known for her feisty nature, she said: “We would have liked to have a choice of stallions to breed to, but she decided the only stallion she would go in foal to was Diamant. We only got her when she was 18 so we didn’t have too long to make up our mind so she made it up for us and that was typically Mo Chroi! They were all born via embryo transfer as she was late in her life at that stage.”

Solerina (Cruising x Diamond Lad) (TIH)

Kildare’s Dr Noel Cawley is renowned for breeding 1.60m performers and one of those was the Cruising mare Solerina who had much success up to five-star level in America under Shane Sweetnam. By the Diamond Lad mare Diamond Ballerina, she counts another 1.60m performer, Rincarina, who is breeding at Cawley’s farm, as a full-sister.

Ridden as a four-year-old by Paul O’Shea, she was later sold to the O’Regan family in Cork and produced by Conor O’Regan to international level before she was bought by Sweetnam and his great supporters, Spy Coast Farm, in 2012. She then went on to flourish with multiple 1.60m international wins including at Spruce Meadows, Washington and Wellington, among others.

She retired from the sport in 2015 and entered Spy Coast Farm’s breeding programme in Kentucky. She had five foals, the first born in 2015, and three in 2019, before she sadly passed away due to colic in 2020.

Talking about her progeny, Spy Coast Farm told The Irish Field: “We are happy with her crop of three-year-olds. Gunther SCF and Gustov SCF are both by our home-bred One in a Million SCF who is Presley Boy x Werly Chin ex Nabab de Reve. They are on the smaller side. Gunther SCF has great balance, technique, and temperament. We are most likely going to steer him in the hunter direction. Gustov SCF has more jump and also is more careful with a sharp front end and a solid temperament.

“Game On SCF is by another one of our home-breds, Madagascar SCF who is Diktator van de Boslandhoeve x Rolette ex Lester. He is a lot bigger and leggier than his brothers. He has great technique and ability, which as he matures should set him up nicely for the bigger show classes.

“She was a super mare and we miss her dearly, but look forward to seeing her three-year-old crop in the ring in the coming years.”

Molly Malone (Kannan X Cavalier, KWPN)

Bertram Allen’s 2014 Dublin Grand Prix winner Molly Malone retired to the breeding paddock in 2019 at the age of 15. Retained by the Allen family’s Ballywalter Stables for breeding, she hasn’t had a foal yet but April Allen recently told the Irish Farmers Journal that they plan on taking embryos from the mare this year and a Chacco-Blue cycle had already begun.

Mrs Quinn (Laughton’s Flight X Sky Boy) (TIH)

THE John Doyle-bred Mrs Quinn was a tiger in the ring. With Greg Broderick, the TIH-bred Laughton’s Flight mare won everything there was to win on the Irish national circuit, including multiple National Grand Prix titles and the National Speed title in 2012, among other accolades.

She was owned during her career by Canadian-based Caladonia Stables and following her retirement from the sport in 2013, she joined Cheryl Broderick’s breeding programme at Ballypatrick.

Mrs Quinn hit the headlines last August when her 2015 son CBD Khantastic (by Elvis Ter Putte) won the five- and six-year-old Irish Breeders’ Classic at Barnadown under Kevin Gallagher. A lovely story - Khantastic was born on the morning of Aga Khan in 2015, which Ireland won and Greg jumped double clear in with MHS Going Global. The headline on the cover of The Irish Field the following day was ‘Khantastic’ and that is where Cheryl got the name.

“Khantastic is Mrs Quinn’s second foal, her first is the seven-year-old mare CBS Adrenaline by Cardento who we also like a lot. She’s just like her Mammy, full of adrenaline so we called her that,” Cheryl explained on the day of that special win. “Khantastic is very like Mrs Quinn was as a youngster. We always had the Breeders’ Classic in our heads for him, it’s been a competition which has been very lucky for us, and we’ve won it a few times.

“We have eight foals from Mrs Quinn and her offspring are very like her. We have a four-year-old (now five) by Luidam who is looking very nice, and a three-year-old (now four) very blood filly by our own stallion Jorado who we think a lot of. Mrs Quinn, who is now 22, was very lucky for Greg in the ring and she has been very lucky for us breeding. She is a special mare, she’s like part of the family here.”