Luvly jubbly - Delboy shines in the RDS main arena to earn coveted title

Ireland has a long and storied tradition of equestrianism that can seamlessly blend the racing and sporthorse industries to perfection at events like the Dublin Horse Show, which concluded on Sunday.

The renowned show is one of the most popular in the world, with the Nations' Cup and its exquisite Aga Khan trophy the centrepiece of the five days in the heart of Dublin. 

Even the trophy has a racing connection; it was donated by the third Aga Khan, owner of five Derby winners, to the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) in 1926 as a gift in recognition of all the pleasure he derived from the show.

While the showjumping competitions grab the spotlight at the RDS, the showing and performance classes are the mainstay of the event and the culmination of long hours, sometimes years, of work. 

Wexford's Furlong family of Thistletown Stud, like countless others around the country, earns their livelihood from a thoroughbred breeding enterprise and has their sporthorse interests as a sideline, although a serious pursuit in and of itself.

It had already been a memorable year for Jimmy and Eileen Furlong and their family with the emergence of their Westerner broodmare Western Approaches as a standout producer, before their son David and his thoroughbred gelding Thistletown Delboy competed in the Four-Year-Old Young Event Horse Championship.

The son of Group 2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil winner Watar, who stands at Dermot Day's Moortown Stud in Wexford, was the only thoroughbred in the field of 20 horses who qualified for the prestigious championship and earned the title of reserve champion, just 0.2 points behind the winner, Belline Special Lady, a daughter of thoroughbred sire Pointilliste. He also received a prize from Treo Eile for the highest-placing achieved by a thoroughbred in the class.

"David bought Delboy privately, broke him in and took him along slowly as he was a big backward horse but he developed into a fine horse," said proud dad Jimmy, who was beginning the weaning process for the farm's National Hunt foals on Monday having returned from Dublin, where the family had five horses in competition.

Initially Delboy was thought of as an embryonic showjumper but, out of a daughter of St Leger winner Silver Patriarch, he began to show an aptitude for eventing and his scopey jump allied to good looks and neat paces prompted a change of direction. David and Delboy qualified for the RDS when second in the four-year-old young event horse class at Forth Mountain, where the class was won by the RDS overall champion Belline Special Lady.

"He's very good on the flat and he did a very good dressage test in Dublin. His jumping was great; it's a real cauldron in the main arena with the atmosphere so for a young horse to behave himself the way he did was unreal. He was brilliant," Jimmy exclaims.

"This horse has plenty of jump in the locker and he has a really good temperament, which is critical for eventing."

Churchstonewarrior: Grade 2 winner was bred by the Furlong familyCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

So scopey and willing is Delboy that a potential point-to-point route had been in David's thinking, but his Dublin success means a career as an eventer now beckons. 

"We produce them to four, so David will sell him on now so he can be taken to the next level," Jimmy explains.

While Thistletown Delboy no longer has the option of a National Hunt career, the almost 20 foals who are beginning independent life this week do, including a Kew Gardens colt who is now a half-brother to a pair of black type winners trained by Jonathan Sweeney.

Western Approaches' eight-year-old Mahler gelding Churchstonewarrior won the Grade 2 Ten Up Novice Chase at Navan in March, on his most recent start. Prior to that he had been second to Gaillard Du Mesnil in the Grade 1 Neville Hotels Novice Chase at Leopardstown's Christmas festival. Already Grade 2 and Grade 3-placed over hurdles, he remains a promising chaser for open company this season.

Then came his Walk In The Park half-brother, Western Walk, who was successful in the Grade B novice handicap hurdle series final at the Fairyhouse Easter festival having won his maiden hurdle on just his first start for Sweeney. 

Jimmy says: "We have some very good broodmares and we've been trying to improve the mares over the last number of years, so we have 11 or 12 black-type mares here now. We try to cover them with the best stallions we can - like Walk In The Park and Blue Bresil - and hope to hit on a good one."

While the foals are weaned at home, David will switch from showing at the RDS to Doncaster as he works the sales for Moanmore Stables and Manister House Stud before returning home in October to help with preparing foals for the National Hunt sales at Tattersalls Ireland and Goffs. 

In addition to their homebreds, Thistletown Stud prepares and consigns foals for clients and this winter will have between 30 and 40 foals to sell. 

"It's a lot of walking," smiles Jimmy.

All the walking in the Wexford air is producing stars, whatever the discipline.

Read more

'They both have the right profiles' - full steam ahead for Haras d’Etreham's young sires as pair face first test at Arqana