British Breeder

NEWS - BRITISH BRED HORSES IN COMPETITION
The highest placing for a British
bred horse was in eventing after all,
when Irishman Padraig McCarthy took
an individual and team silver on Mr
Chunky, a 13-year-old British-bred
SHB(GB) registered gelding. Padraig’s
experience in show jumped showed
on the final day when a clear round
elevated them into the silver medal
position and his best eventing result to
date.
Mr Chunky is by the incredibly
successful sire Jumbo. Jumbo was fairly
unique among eventing sires in that he
competed to advanced level himself
(including winning at Lion D’Angers),
in a sport that stallions tend not to
dominate in. By the Irish Draught sire
Skippy out of the showjumper Betty,
who was by the thoroughbred Seven
Bells, Jumbo sired 45 advanced horses,
including Avebury ( 3 times Burghley
winner), Henry Tankerville (Braham
winner), Skylight (European Young
Rider Gold Medallist), Allercombe Ellie
(short list Rio Olympics) and graded
stallion Philanderer II (European Young
Rider Team 2017). Mr Chunky is out
the thoroughbred mare Avin Fun Bar
by Sergeant Drummer. He was bought
from his breeder Sue Trump by Lucy
Wiegersma and produced by Lucy to
four-star level – the pair completed
Burghley in 2015 – and Padraig took the
ride at the beginning of 2016.
Two British bred horses contributed to
the team bronze medal in the dressage.
Hawtins Delicato may be in his first
full year of Grand Prix but with the
masterful Carl Hester in the saddle he
gave a confident display in the Grand
Prix for a 77.283% score which was also
the second highest score for the British
team.
Delicato is a second generation
homebred for Judith Hawtins. The
British Hanoverian is a son of the
international Grand Prix stallion
Diamond Hit, who represented Great
Britain ridden by Emma Hindle before
retiring to stud in Germany. Diamond
Hit is the most successful stallion son
of Don Schufro, who is considered
an excellent sire of broodmares and
was an Olympic medallist in his own
right. Don Schufro is also the sire of
Olympic star Weihegold. Diamond Hit’s
dam Loretta was a prolific producer
with a number of daughters becoming
successful broodmares in their own
right but she is best known as the dam
of Sandro Hit.
Delicato’s dam Ravenna was by the
British based sire Regazzoni (by
Rubinstein ) out of Judith’s incredible
foundation mare World’s Finest who
was by super sire Weltmeyer.
From this mare family, Judith has
also bred dual National Young Horse
Champion Hawtins San Floriana and
another very exciting National Young
Horse Champion, Hawtins Duchessa.
Despite Spencer Wilton battling a
recent injury, he and the experienced
British Hanoverian Super Nova II got us
off to a good start on the first day
with 74.581%. Super Nova is a son of
the world’s leading dressage sire De
Niro out of the State Premium Mare
Walpurgis and was bred by the late Mrs
Eve Kirby. Walpurgis was homebred
herself and was three times BHHS
Champion.
De Niro had no less than 6 offspring
entered at Tyron and has been ranked
Number 1 on the WBFSH list for the
past 3 years, and in 2 previous years
before that. He is by far the most
successful stallion son of the incredible
Donnerhall, who not only had a number
of sons and grandsons producing WEG
contenders but was the damsire of
another 5. The British show jumping
team had 2 British bred entries, but a
mixture of humidity and inexperience
prevented them from progressing to
the final stages. However both William
Funnell with his Hickstead Derby hero
Billy Buckingham (featured in the last
edition of the magazine) and Holly
Smith with Hearts Destiny (bred by
Stephanie Scott) certainly helped to
uphold the reputation of British
breeding in this discipline. Hearts
Destiny is by Stephanie’s own stallion
Heart Throb, an AES graded son of
Heartbreaker out of a Latano mare. In
fact Heart Throb is also the sire of the
Individual silver medallist
Padraig McCarthy on Mr Chunky.
Photo FEI/Liz Gregg
HOYS Working Hunter finalist Heart on
Fire that Stephanie also bred. Hearts
Destiny’s dam is the Hanoverian mare
Ritana whose sire is the Holstein Rabino
(Ramiro Z x Calypso II) who won the
jumping section of his performance
test. The immediate damline produced
international jumper German Classic.
Two more British bred horses made
the cut into the individual rounds.
Lizziemary looked like she might be
the best of these having jumped some
stunning rounds earlier in the week
but a tired looking 12 faults in the final
round dropped them to 29th overall.
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