A sparkling success story
A three-year filly purchased for €3,000 has repaid that investment many time over for breeder Hilda Anthony, writes Siobhán English
HORSE breeder and producer Hilda Anthony has always enjoyed taking on a small project in the hope of making a profit.
Rarely spending anymore than a few thousand on a young horse, she does a lot of the groundwork herself and hopes that her purchase will, in time, give her some return.
In 2007, Hilda picked up a three-year-old filly at Goresbridge for the sum of €3,000. The plan was to produce her and sell her on, but as it hap- pened, Uskerty Diamond Lady never left the yard.
Not only has the 14-year-old since paid for herself many times over, but she has also given Hilda much joy as a show jumping owner and has now started a new career as a broodmare.
A daughter of Carrick Diamond Lad out of the Young Barnaby mare, Uskerty Barnaby, Uskerty Diamond Lady is truly unique in that she was one of only a handful of traditionally-bred mares jumping on the national circuit in recent years.
“I initially bought her from her breeder John Doyle with the plan to sell her on as an amateur horse,” Hilda commented. “She was easy to break so I evented with her a few times myself and also competed her up to one metre in show jumping.”
A national school teacher in nearby Carrick-on-Suir, Hilda often used Belline House, near her home town of Owning, for schooling and one day bumped into an old friend, now top event rider Padraig McCarthy.
“Padraig was working there at the time and was very impressed with the mare, so much so I decided to send her further to be produced.” As a four-year-old she was ridden by Brendan Ryan in the National Discovery in Millstreet but missed the final by one point. She was then sent to Seamus Hayes as a five-year-old.
With Seamus in the saddle the combination sadly missed the cut for the RDS by a single time fault, but the following year she qualified for the sixyear-olds with Francis Connors and made it into the final.
It was from then on that Uskerty Diamond Lady showed her talent in the show jumping arenas all over Ireland.
First competing on the Munster Grand Prix circuit, Francis Connors and Uskerty Diamond Lady soon became known as the combination to beat against the clock.
During their career together they won no fewer than 16 Grand Prix competitions, as well as the 2015 Millstreet Speed Derby, and the €10,000 Devenish Nutrition Bet Showjumping Live at Mullingar the same year.
Their last Munster Grand Prix win came at Ballinamona in June of last year, by which time Hilda had already made the decision to retire the mare to stud having covered her with the highly-regarded Oldenburg stallion Balou du Rouet.
In the past few weeks she produced a colt by the German-based sire.
“I would love to have used an Irish stallion but the mare’s progeny need to be commercial. I picked a stallion that has sired horses competing at a high level. This year we covered her with Verdi.”
Progress
While Hilda waits to see how the mare’s first foal turns out, in the meantime she can enjoy following the progress of some other horses she has bred and produced over the years.
Another €3,000 purchase from Goresbridge as a threeyear-old, the Cavalier Royale mare Mexicado competed up to two-star in eventing with Hilda before being retired to stud.
She produced her first foal, a filly by Clover Brigade, in 2011 and that produce, now named Suas Linn, was sold to Germany at the 2017 Monart Sale for €10,000.
In total she has bred three foals, the others being a fiveyear-old by Ars Vivendi and a six-year-old by Harlequin du Carel. Both will possibly be aimed the sales later this year.
Also purchased from Goresbridge, Lates du Carel is another to have had a super career show jumping with Francis Connors.
By Harlequin du Carel and bred in Tipperary by Thomas Ryan, the mare qualified for the Dublin Horse Show as both a five-year-old and six-year-old, during which time she was placed third in the Broodmare Futurity.
This highlights elite mares and emphasises breeding for performance.
“She also qualified for the Breeders’ Classic and got into the final. It was my wish that she get to Lanaken for the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses and I was delighted when she competed there as a seven-year-old.”
Throughout this time offers came in to purchase the mare but Hilda made the decision to retain her and put her in foal in 2017.
Like Uskerty Diamond Lady, she too recently produced a colt by Balou du Rouet. However, she has not been covered again and may possibly return to the circuit sometime in 2019.
“Only for Francis (Connors) I would not be in this position. He doesn’t rush young horses and is always thinking of their future.
“He is just a wonderful rider and the success of both mares is 100pc down to him,” added Hilda.