TWO more bronze medals for Irish Sport Horses and a glimpse of some potential eventing stars of the future were the highlights of the WBFSH young eventing horse championships at Le Lion d’Angers in France last weekend.
These championships were the springboard for a host of future medallists at top level, headed by La Biosthetique Sam FBW and including a bunch of Tokyo Olympics horses such as Chipmunk FRH, Toledo de Kerser and Vassily de Lassos.
Irish five-star winners Bay My Hero and Paulank Brockagh, Rio individual bronze medallist horse Mighty Nice and Rioghan Rua, the individual bronze medal-winning mare at the 2019 European championships, are famous Irish Sport Horse graduates from these championships.
As ever with such championships, it will prove interesting to see how many finalists return to France to compete at the Paris Olympics in just under three years’ time. In the meantime, topics such as the best bloodlines, leading studbooks, definitions of Irish-breds and changing patterns in event horse breeding are all cause for debate for breeding pundits.
For now, here’s food for thought from the breeders – Richie Fitzgerald and Alan Wheeler - of the two bronze medallist Irish horses and the young Australian international rider Isabel English, who has an interesting Irish connection, on their Le Lion d’Angers stars.
Six-year-old championship
Gold: Lagona 4 (OS. Lavagon (HANN) - Ile de Cartina, by Cartami 4 (HOLST). Breeder: Theodor Sporkmann).
Silver: Fibonacci de Lessac (SF. Carinjo HDC (HOLST) - Noaly de Lessac, by Bright Silver (TB). Breeder: SARL Les Ecuries de Lessac).
Bronze: Bonmahon Chelsea (ISH. Chellsini Z (ZANG) - Bonmahon Ramiro Star, by Ramiro B (BWP). Breeder: Richard Fitzgerald).
Seven-year-old championship
Gold: Cute Girl (HOLST. Coventry (HOLST) - Caligula, by Clearway (HOLST). Breeder: Hobe Magens).
Silver: Outback (TRAK. Duke Of Hearts (TB) - Only Six MG, by Sixtus (TRAK). Breeder: Trakehner Gestüt Grigoleit).
Bronze: Cooley Snapchat (ISH. Kannan (KWPN) - Anabee Arkansas (ISH) by VDL Arkansas (KWPN). Breeder: Alan Wheeler).
Meet the breeders
Richie Fitzgerald
“NO, I’m not a Chelsea football fan, his name is from his sire Chellsini!” said Richie Fitzgerald, explaining the backstory of the Le Lion d’Angers six-year-old bronze medallist Bonmahon Chelsea’s name.
Breeding good performers runs in the Deise county family. “My father [Francis] would have bred Coolcorran Cool Diamond (Glidawn Diamond) and Jokers Girl (Slyguff Joker).”
The Richie Fitzgerald-bred Bonmahon Chelsea (ISH) ridden by Italy's Rebecca Chiappero \ EquusPix Photography
Richie himself scored by breeding Bonmahon Chelsea, third at the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses young event horse championships in France where the six-year-old clinched the bronze medal for Rebecca Chiappero.
The Italian rider and the Irish Sport Horse catapulted up the leaderboard from 14th place after dressage to third in the six-year-old final.
“We were delighted, he jumped grand. He always had the ability to go down the jumping route but he also had good movement,” said Richie, underlining what appears to be two common denominators in the breeding of the Le Lion-placed horses.
Bonmahon Chelsea’s dam was bought as a yearling at Cavan sales by his keen-eyed father. “He bought the mare for €600,” he revealed about Bonmahon Ramiro Star’s purchase.
By Ramiro B, the sire of such successful five-star eventers as Cooley Master Class, the recent runner-up at the new Maryland five-star for Oliver Townend, Bonmahon Ramiro Star is one of three recorded offspring of the Mohill Cavalier Clover mare Ringo’s Star and was bred in Longford by Joseph Quinn.
“The mare was later sold to very good friends of ours in Waterford, the Walshes. They’ve retired from their careers and have taken up sport horse breeding. We operate an AI centre here so she comes here every year to be A.I’d. This year, she has a colt foal by Conthargos, Paul Schockemöhle’s stallion and she’s back in foal to Conthargos again.”
Before her sale to Eamon Walsh, Bonhamon Ramiro Star bred a half-dozen foals for Richie. Five were by the late resident sire Bonmahon Master Blue, a rare stallion son of Mister Blue and the sixth was by the Zangersheide sire Chellsini Z.
A son of Chellano Z, Chellsini Z is now based in France. “He was a beautiful looking, blood horse, I liked his type,” said Richie, explaining why he chose him seven years ago to cross with the Ramiro B mare.
“We’re going more in that direction,” said Richie about the family’s move to concentrate on their busy boarding establishment for sport horse and thoroughbred mares under the family’s Ballinasisla Stud banner. One long-standing contact amongst their clients is Italian agent Enrico Pedroni.
“He would have purchased high class Irish horses for a long time, going back to the days when he and Tommy Brennan purchased about 70 to 80 show jumping horses a year.
“One of his best achievements was when the Italian team competed at one point in a Nations Cup on four Irish horses all purchased here by Enrico. One of his main clients was the Italian army and he still buys a handful of horses.”
One Pedroni also spotted was the young Bonmahon Chelsea and he arranged the horse’s sale to his current rider. “A lot of people looked at him before,” said Richie about the Waterford-bred, now attracting serious interest from would-be buyers.
Alan Wheeler
LIMERICK farrier Alan Wheeler downed tools to watch Cooley Snapchat, the bronze medal-winning seven-year-old bred by him in Patrickswell, over the weekend.
“I saw his name down for the British team about two weeks ago and just happened to be near home over the three days he was competing so I got to see him online. He had a good dressage test, good cross-country and clear jumping,” he noted.
By Kannan, Cooley Snapchat’s dam is the VDL Arkansas-Porsch mare Anabee Arkansas, also bred in Co Limerick by William O’Sullivan.
“I bought the mother as a yearling and competed her up to 1.30m myself. Then we started breeding from her because she looked good enough to be breeding from. She had two Pacinos, Clem McMahon jumped the first one [Hilton Humdinger] up to 1.35m as a six-year-old and he started breeding her and I have the other Pacino mare out of her. She [Kappo Chino] has a two-year-old by Vivant, a yearling by Carrera VDL and is hopefully in foal to Carrera again.”
Unfortunately, he lost Anabee Arkansas, who produced six offspring for him. “It was unlucky, the dam died two years ago just before she foaled. Now, we have a two-year-old filly by Douglas out of her. We’ll keep her on for a while, she’ll probably be competed and bred from as well. If she’s good enough, she’ll be bred, If not, she’ll go.”
Performance testing mares before Alan decides whether they then go to the breeding paddock is his way. “If they’re not good enough to breed from, don’t breed them,” advises Alan.
Another mare he competed was the home-bred Cavalier Royale-Bahrain mare Cavelle. When covered by Simba, the Heartbreaker son standing locally with Sheila White, she produced Fernhill Check Your Pocket, competed at Lanaken by Kate Derwin.
“They were side by side in next door stables as three-year-olds!” he said about Fernhill Check Your Pocket and Cooley Snapchat, the two Limerick-breds that went on to compete in different sports at the WBFSH young horse championships.
Alan sold Cooley Snapchat, previously named Primo Arkan, as a three-year-old. “He went to Millstreet for the Young Ireland qualifier, he won that qualifier and Paul O’Shea and Michael Hayden bought him a week after that. They broke him, produced him and sold him on after that.”
Now competed by UK rider Selina Milnes, Alan thought a lot of the Kannan youngster that he thinks is well suited to today’s eventing market. “He was always a very nice, easy horse, very genuine and a real good mover.
"The whole eventing thing has changed now, you need more movement, more jump than before, the horse has to be a lot more careful. The more modern European blood is what you need.”
Alan and his wife Marie, who works as an accountant, breed two or three mares each year to sell on as three and four-year-olds. Two other important members of the family team are his parents and SJI judges Norman and Liz Wheeler. “Covid put them back with the shows but they’re back up and running again!” he added.
By the numbers
€9,400 – won by seven-year-old gold medal champion Cute Girl.
€5,700 – won by six-year-old gold medal champion Lagona 4.
30 – ISH entries at Le Lion d’Angers: eight six-year-olds and 22 seven-year-olds.
8 – ISH in Sunday’s six-year-old jump-off.
7 – clear rounds from the 19 ISH seven-year-olds in Sunday’s show jumping phase.
6 – O.B.O.S Quality 004 (OLD) progeny in the seven-year-old championship: (Heads Up, fifth. Breeder: Paul O’Shea), LEB Empress (14th. Jo Breheny), MHS Brown Jack (17th. Ita Brennan), Shanaclough Quality Clover (27th. John Glynn), Ultimate Quality (30th Messrs. Clarke & Hanlon) and Claragh Olala (46th. Joseph Henry O’Reilly).
5 – ISH in the six-year-old top-10: Bonmahon Chelsea (bronze), SBH Big Wall (Sixth. Puissance. John P. Murphy), Dourough Ferro Class Act (Seventh. S Creevagh Ferro. Gordon Drury), CBI Aldo (Eighth. Goodluck VDL. Raymond Carroll) and Royal Encounter (10th. Lancelot. Peter Rice).
4 – ISH in the seven-year-old top-10: Cooley Snapchat (bronze), Heads Up (fifth), Cooley Rules (Sixth. Beach Ball. George McCullagh) and Cooley Rosalent (Seventh. Valent. J.W Rosbotham).
3 – years to wait until Paris 2024 to see if any of this year’s finalists compete there.
2 – gold medal mare champions: Lagona 4 and Cute Girl.
1 – full brother to fischerChipmunk FRH: ChinTonic 3 (Fifth. Contendro I).