SEVERAL star-rated sport horse stallions were added to the Irish Sport Horse studbook at the Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) inspections in Cavan this week. GBBS International’s Abba van de Vrombautshoeve Z, Eros van het Lindenhof Z, Ulrik van’t Merelsnest, plus their Verbier de Muze, owned in partnership with Joris de Brabander, had passed Stage 1 by Friday morning, as did Michael Pender’s Madgeslane Deise Vu.

Several approved stallions received additional star-ratings: Liam O’Meara’s traditionally-bred Sir Jim Jim (one-star), Hadley Sport Horses’ Phenomene Bleu VDM (three-star), Luiz Francisco de Azevedo’s My Way (four-star) and Gary Jackson’s Aristoteles V (five-star).

By Friday morning, the Class 1 approved Irish Draughts were John Niland’s Rhynn Blackie Go Lucky, Gabriel Slattery’s Fuerty Welcome Lad, Janice Reddy’s Ardnacashel Monarch, Sophie Meehan’s Longwood Sandyman, Ann Lambert’s Ashfield Bouncer, Damien Whelan’s Abbeyward Zero, Tommy Butler’s Coolfin Gentleman, Elizabeth Deane Cogan’s Baltydaniel Arthur, Michael and Chris Mannion’s Coom View Highlander and James Duffy’s Kilmovee White Lion.

Sonja Egan, HSI’s Head of Breeding, Innovation and Development, felt that 2025 was “a very strong year for stallions. I think we had a really good diversity of Draughts in terms of type, in terms of bloodlines and even in terms of colour. That was really nice,” she said on Friday morning about a number of duns and palominos present.

Longwood Sandyman and Coolfin Gentleman were the first palomino Class 1 Irish Draughts to be approved at Cavan.

“I was delighted we had Kate and Pat [Hoare] yesterday with Moylough Supremacy to give him his Gold Merit.

We’ve seen some really promising three and four-year-old horses so far for the Sport Horse studbook. We have a number of linear profile horses, we’ll see some three-star, four-star and five-star horses later today.”

Full report and a complete list of the 2025 approvals in next week’s issue.