Susan Finnerty
DUBLIN Puissance crowd favourite Daniel Bluman realised his ambition of owning an Irish horse with his purchase of Kilbrackan Blue Jay, one of the top-priced lots at the Bolesworth International Elite Sport Horse Auction of yearlings last weekend.
The yearling colt, bred by Leitrim hotelier Donal Cadden, was originally sold by him for €6,600 at the 2014 Elite Foal Sale at Cavan, where he was bought by Brian Cassidy for Nina Barbour, the driving force behind the Bolesworth International CSI****.
Last Friday’s auction of selected show jumping-bred yearlings was part of this new Cheshire show, held last weekend when Kilbrackan Blue Jay was sold for £21,000 to the Columbian international show jumping rider, who was competing there.
Bluman, who became an instant hit with the Dublin crowds when he competed here in 2013 posted the news about his latest horse on his Facebook page.
The well-bred yearling is by the international show jumping stallion Plot Blue, joint winner of the 2010 FEI World Cup final with Germany’s Marcus Ehning and is out of Guga, a Cruising mare, whose own dam Coral Sea goes back to the Trakehner sire Abdullah and the thoroughbred Gipfel, once based here with Norman Allen.
Cadden, who owns the Kilbrackan Arms hotel in Carrigallen, is a fan of Plot Blue, saying: “I really like him and what he’s produced so far. He stamps them similar to himself.”
He bought Guga through Tyrone breeder Alan Robertson, who has located a number of international performance mares for clients and Guga was sourced in Spain, where she had jumped at 1.40m level.
“She has a really interesting story, her dam [Coral Sea] was sent over to Mary McCann to be put in foal to Cruising and she stayed in Ireland until she foaled, then went back to Spain in foal again to Cruising,” said Cadden, who has just added another Robertson find, a Cruising-Quito De Baussy mare who competed at 1.50m level, to his band of four broodmares.
Coral Sea’s first Cruising offspring, named Big Mac, won the Spanish four-year-old championship, until his premature death due to colic. Kyka, Guga’s first foal by Juventus, has already jumped at 1.40m level with Spanish rider, Ignatio Fernandez.
Her Irish-born offspring include Kilbrackan Blue Jay’s year-older full-sister bought by Richard Bourns, while according to Cadden, she has “a fantastic Cornet Obolensky colt foal this year. He’s a month old and there’s a lot of interest in the foal already, I’ve had several people back on the phone since the weekend.”
And no doubt the connections are hopeful of another pinhooker success story, as Guga was artificially inseminated to Plot Blue again the day after the Bolesworth auction.
In all, 12 yearlings were selected from leading producers and breeders in Britain and mainland Europe, including Stal Hendrix, Ashford Farm Sport Horses/Eric Levallois, Harthill Stud, Billy Stud and Davenport Stables.
The response to Nina Barbour’s inaugural sale from buyers was positive, with total sales hitting £196,500 and the average price per yearling at £16,375.
The top-priced yearling of the sale was the chesnut colt Elvis, sold for £30,500 on the night to Norwegian show jumper Line Raaholt, who competes on the Longines Global Champions Tour and is trained by Geir Gulliksen.
The colt, consigned by Ashford Farm and Eric Levallois, is by Diamant De Semilly out of the Heartbreaker mare Sarabelle, who has already produced offspring who are jumping at 1.40m (Atlantus) and 1.35m (Remmits Delphi).