THE Brady family have had a week to remember. Not only did Peter, from Drumagoland, Co Cavan, breed Off The Record (VDL Arkansas - Drumgoland Bay, by Ard Ohio) but he, wife Noeline and daughter Regina were in Pratoni, on the outskirts of Rome, to see the horse finish best of the Irish-breds (seventh) at the world championships.

“Sure, it was an absolute dream. We got word two weeks before that they [rider Will Coleman and Off The Record] were coming to Rome so when we heard that, we decided to go. We had a fabulous time over in Italy.

“It was lovely to see him, the horse looked fantastic and it was three great days. They couldn’t treat you any better,” Peter said about the American welcome and hospitality.

Peter typically breeds between three to five foals each year since buying his first mare - an Irish Draught mare by Ringwood Cockatoo’s damsire Skylark - at a local sale 51 years ago.

He currently has a Sligo Candy Boy four-year-old half-brother to Coleman’s star horse. “I’ve had a few enquiries about him,” Peter told The Irish Field.

All going well, Off The Record looks on track for a return visit to Europe in two years’ time when Paris will host the next Olympic Games. Can his breeder speak French? “The French is not great! But it would be great to see him there if it all works out.”

A Master Plan

Another combination throwing down a marker for inclusion on that USA team is Ariel Grald and Leamore Master Plan, who occupied the ‘high risk, high reward’ individual place on the American squad.

They rocketed up the leaderboard, from 50th place after dressage to finish just outside the top-10 and were the fastest combination on cross-country day, even pipping speed merchants Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk by 0.01 seconds.

Both Peter and Leamore Master Plan’s breeder Michael Byrne have featured in the Breeders’ 10 series (Monbeg By Design’s breeder Fiona Molloy is pencilled in too) and as Michael explained then, Leamore Master Plan is by Master Imp out of a Cavalier Royale mare Ardragh Bash, bought from Tom Rowland.

Ardragh Bash goes back also to King of Diamonds and Go Tobann and the Byrne father-and-son team of Michael and Ciaran still have some of this family and follow Leamore Master Plan’s progress.

“It’s great to see Irish-bred horses like him doing well around the world, I feel they are not promoted well enough here in Ireland.

“We are delighted to have a young Pointilliste mare [Royal Queen] out of Leamore Master Plan’s full-sister, Royale Imp, here at home breeding,” said Ciaran, adding: “She [Royal Queen] has her first foal this year, which is a colt by Marion Hughes’ stallion HHS Cornet.”