I’M the owner and manager of Old Mill House Stud, which is based in Kill, Co Kildare. The yard is located beside the family property and its main business is breeding and youngstock. Horses run in the Creighton family; both myself and two of my brothers, Alan and John, are involved in the equine industry.

1. How did you start breeding horses?

Our first family breeding mare, Lucky Dawn, was purchased from a friend. She had successfully evented with David Foster, including the CIC3* at Punchestown. Out of this mare, we bred a number of horses, including the consistent performer Touch of Dawn (Touchdown), who competed with my brother Alan to 1.40m level.

We acquired our foundation thoroughbred broodmare Celestial Drive (Dublin Taxi), as a 16-year-old from Norman Allen. This was after we had purchased Final Flight, a three-year-old filly she had bred.

I should mention the help provided by vet Marcus Swail in the early days of our breeding programme. He was instrumental in our early success as Celestial Drive was not an easy mare to get in foal, or keep in foal, which we did seven more times!

2. “A tiny breeder” is how you once described yourself, but your strike rate is high. Can small breeders ‘compete’ against commercial farms?

I do count myself as a tiny breeder. It’s about quality, not quantity. I primarily breed from two mares, from two different families. One that Touch of Dawn has bred is Kann Be Lucky (Kannan), a 1.55m horse competing in England with Jessica Hewitt.

The other is a mare I bred and now own again called Celestial Up Too (Ard VDL Douglas – Celestial Drive). When owned by Mark Sherry, she bred a 1.60m horse Up Too Jacco Blue (Chacco-Blue) who has competed this year with Max Kuhner for Shanghai Swans on the Global Champions Tour.

These results would rival any commercial farm. I know my dam lines very well and this equips me with the right information to make the best breeding decisions possible.

3. Best horses you’ve bred to date?

Fernhill Pimms (Ard VDL Douglas - Celestial Drive) spent many years competing at the top level in eventing with William Fox-Pitt, it was always a pleasure to see them succeed.

I also bred Coppindell (VDL Arkansas – Bansha Buttercup, by Renkum Englishman). This mare had great results in age classes, including winning the IHB league as a five and six-year-old, as well as a class in Lanaken.

Touch of Dawn and Celestial Touch were top home-bred performers too. Recently, I’ve been following the success of Kann Be Lucky. He has been gathering quite a lot of momentum in the UK this year, winning the Grand Prix in Aintree.

4. What was your proudest moment as a breeder?

As a small breeder, my proudest moments tend to happen in the yard at home. Every spring and summer, I foal my own mares in the small yard behind the house.

Seeing the hard work of the previous year and being excited about the new stock to come, from the same dam as a Global Champions Tour or Badminton horse, fills me with pride.

A highlight of my breeding career would have been in 2018, seeing three horses I bred compete at various levels in Badminton, including Fernhill Pimms.

5. To breed a five-star event horse or 1.60m show jumper, any preference?

Not really! I set out to breed an athlete first, one that has a brain to compete at the top level in its discipline, whether that be eventing or jumping.

6. Chacco-Blue, Kannan, Livello are some of the leading sires you’ve bred foals by. How do you select next year’s covering sires?

Firstly, it would be a dream come true to be able to breed a full-sibling to one of the top competition horses out of my mares.

Secondly, I try to select a stallion which has potential in both the eventing and jumping disciplines. This has motivated my decision to go with Livello, who has been a very good choice for Celestial Up Too.

Her three-year-old Livello filly, which was sold in Monart this year, is a good-looking, blood horse with buckets of future potential.

Finally, I do have to consider commerciality as some of my stock are sold as foals.

7. Best advice you’ve ever got?

To keep up with reproductive science. I’ve used embryo transfer technology for years now and have recently become involved with ICSI, which is an exciting prospect for the future.

This allows me to breed from the best mares, to the best sires, in a planned scientific way. It makes a top mare a valuable commodity.

8. What’s the dream?

The dream is for my breeding programme to continue to bring success.

Ultimately, I would love another Up Too Jacco Blue, as he really is something special. I think there is a certain ‘dream factor’ that comes with the Global Champions Tour, even the name says it all: Global Champions.

9. You’ve won the recent massive Lotto jackpot. How would you spend it, horse-wise?

If I could have any mare, I would love Simone Blum’s DSP Alice (Askari). She seems to have such heart and I firmly believe you cannot beat a mare that has a heart to win. Even with all the money in the world, I would continue to breed from the lines which I currently have, I would just breed more.

I have such faith in the Celestial Drive family; they are sound, consistently good-looking, athletic and intelligent.

10. Have you any promising youngsters coming up?

Celestial Up Too has a lovely yearling by Quality Time, a two-year-old and a foal by Livello, all of which contain the family’s characteristics of blood, paces and presence.

I also have some exciting embryos due in 2022, by stallions including For Pleasure and Livello.

I’ve another broodmare from the Celestial Drive family called Celestial Touch (Touchdown), who jumped 1.40m herself and we currently have a promising two-year-old filly out of her by Harley. At the moment she is maturing in the field for an exciting competitive future.

Touch of Dawn has a nice Tyson yearling in the mix as well, we might choose to retain her as a breeding mare from that line. As a breeder, you always have to be thinking about your potential future broodmares.