BRIAN Lusk has been taking things at a slow pace during the lockdown but this week successfully brokered the sale of Sandra Hamilton’s four-year-old Corandro gelding Arlo to Wendy Harris, an owner with Co Meath event rider Sarah Ennis.

Better known these days as a dealer in quality event horses, Brian Lusk was once one of the top National Hunt trainers in Ireland, saddling winners at major meetings both here and in Britain, and he still dabbles in the thoroughbred sector.

As a youngster, Brian showed cattle at the local fat stock shows each year and, when he left school, he bought beef and store cattle each week for shipment to England. This involved him going to farms throughout the country and to marts and sales in Northern Ireland. He did, however, always have a liking for horses.

“Our grandfather James used to attend the local point-to-point meetings and Harold and I would often go with him,” said Brian. “Following grandfather’s death in 1964 and that, sadly, of our father, just two years later, I decided to train a few pointers, graduating to having runners on the track and, in 1967, I set up at a yard near Templepatrick.”

Most successful among the many winners Brian saddled during his years as a racehorse trainer was the 1965 Skyros gelding Skymas who won 37 times and was only once out of the first three in 57 starts in the colours of his breeder, Matt Magee. “Matt purchased Skymas’s dam (Red Mimas, by Red Shaft) at the Ballymena Fair for £50 and nearly everything she bred won,” commented Lusk.

Skymas, who died at the age of 32, topped the list of the six best jumpers to have been trained in Northern Ireland, which was compiled in 2007 by the late Jimmy Walker of the Belfast Telegraph.

Best in Northern Ireland

“Skymas, the winner of two consecutive Champion Chases (1976-77) at Cheltenham at the ripe old ages of 11 and 12, was arguably the best horse ever trained in Northern Ireland… He was talented at a variety of distances, and although he scored regularly at two miles, he also finished runner-up in an Irish Grand National (to Tartan Ace in 1973).”

Talking to Walker, Magee’s grandson, Mike Todd, had this to say: “Those were amazing days when Skymas was at his best, and in addition to his two Cheltenham Festival victories, he also won the Mackeson Gold Cup in 1973 – three years before his first festival win – and went on to land the Sun Ratings Chase at Liverpool the day Red Rum won his third National.

“Skymas began his career in a bumper at Downpatrick in 1972, and was ridden by Dermot Weld who, at that time, was making his way through the amateur ranks. I’ll never forget the buzz Skymas gave Northern Ireland racing, and an Ulster jockey, Sammy Shields, was also involved with him when scoring in the Troytown at Navan.”

Grand National-winning trainer Mouse Morris, who won those two Queen Mother Champion Chases on Skymas, regarded the victories as the highlights of his career in the saddle. Others to have ridden for Lusk included Stan Murphy, Frank Berry, Tommy Carberry, Tommy Stack, Kevin Prendergast, Robin Bingham, George McGruggan and sisters, Anne Ferris and Rosemary Rooney.

Among other successful horses at the Lusk yard were Tommy Allen’s ill-fated Mr Barcock (considered by Lusk to be the best horse he ever trained as he won three bumpers, the November Handicap at Leopardstown and was a short-head second in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham before succumbing to injury in the field), Howard McMurray’s Paddy’s Well and Aldave whose owner, David Prentice, was considered the luckiest in the yard. Lusk’s own colours were carried to victory 20 times by Major Owen.

Brian purchased as a foal, and sold as a three-year-old, the 1975 gelding Wayward Lad whose total of 28 wins included a hat-trick of victories in the King George VI Chase when trained by Michael Dickinson.

For 20 years, Lusk sourced successful horses (including the Cheltenham winner King Cutler) for the late Denys Smith whose first track winner, Owen’s Mark, was found by Brian and Harold’s grandfather James Lusk.

Despite his great success in racing, Brian, who bought many of his horses in the company of the late Jerry Rohan, handed in his licence towards the end of the 1970s. “Unfortunately, due to the difference between punts and sterling and the introduction of VAT on training fees in Northern Ireland, training here became unviable. I then started dealing in sport horses, especially eventers, for the British market.”

Following the tragic death of his young son James in a tractor accident in 1981, Brian moved to the south of England where he began supplying eventers to riders across Britain. He also found a sponsor in the London-based company SR Direct Mail for leading British event rider, Lucinda Green. He returned to Northern Ireland over a decade ago.

Olympic gold medallist

Among the best event horses sourced by Lusk and Roddy Dean were Leslie Law’s superb CCI4* rides Shear H2O and Shear L’Eau, 1990 and 1991 full-brothers by the thoroughbred Stan The Man out of Starry Night II, by the thoroughbred Carnival Night; the pair were bred in Co Clare by Edward Walsh.

The elder of the two was purchased as a three-year-old at Millstreet while Roddy Dean solely sourced the Athens Olympic Gold medal winning Shear L'Eau on behalf of his longterm owners, Shearwater Insurance. Dean also credits Anne Hatton for doing a marvellous job producing the horse. "I am very proud to have played a part in the horse and owners' massive success," said Dean this week.

Law and Shear H20 were members of the British silver medal-winning team at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, a year in which they were second at Badminton, while he and Shear L’Eau won individual gold, plus team silver, at the 2004 Games in Athens. On a visit back to Ireland in 2003, Shear L’Eau finished fourth in the European Championships in Punchestown having placed fifth earlier that year in the CCI4* in Kentucky.

Among Brian’s more recent successful buys are those running under the Brookfield prefix of John and Chloe Perry plus Alison Swinburn such as the Piggy March-ridden Brookfield Inocent (CCI4*-L) and Brookfield Quality (CCI3*-L).

Also sourced for the British trio by Lusk are the Tom McEwen-partnered Brookfield Benjamin Bounce, who was third in the CCI3*-L at Le Lion d’Angers last October, and the Harry Meade-ridden Brookfield Cavalier Cruise who won the CCI2*-S at Gatcombe the previous month.

The last-named, a 2013 black gelding by Cavalier Carnival, claimed the four-year-old young event horse championship at Dublin in 2017 in the hands of Patrick Whelan. He had qualified in the ownership of the late William Codd and Wexford producer Louise Codd with whom Lusk has struck up a very successful partnership in recent seasons.

Like all others, Brian is keen to get back to events to spot the next international horse for his clients and also to see his and Harold’s Financial Reward gelding Rockfall get his campaign underway in the hands of Jonny Steele.

The chesnut won the EI110 for six-year-olds at Tattersalls in mid-August last year before finishing second in an open class at that level in Loughanmore two weeks later. He rounded off the season when placing eighth, on his dressage score, in the prestigious Michael Leonard championship for five and six-year-olds at the Ballindenisk international at the end of September.

Jonny Steele and Rockfall, owned by Harold Lusk, won the final leg of the ISH Studbook Series for jumping for young horses at Tattersalls last year \ Louise O'Brien Photography