15 minute read
Order of MERIT
Order of MERIT
Leo Powell recognises Jessie Harrington as a richly deserved winner at this year’s Cartier Awards, and pays tribute to the late horsemen Captain Con Power and Ronnie O’Neill of Whytemount Stud
AS I sit to pen this month’s column, I am being swamped with news of stallions retiring to stud in Britain and Ireland. The timing is not accidental, coming in the days and weeks leading up to the breeding stock sales at Tattersalls Ireland, Goffs, Newmarket, finally, Arqana in Deauville.
The bloodstock news pages are full of this news, alongside the announcement of fees for 2025, and there are some eye-catching numbers among them.
In fairness, these simply reflect the successes being enjoyed by the stallions in question. I am, like you, looking forward to delving into the pages of this issue, focusing as it does on sales and stallion reviews and news.
For once, and I am sure to my editor Sally’s delight [Thank the Lord!], I am not writing from a hospital ward, or even about my own endeavours and travels (more of that next time!). Instead, I am writing about three people whose names are instantly recognisable in Ireland, but whose influence extends beyond those shores.
Some two decades ago now, I was written to by Harry Herbert, and asked if I would join the jury for the Cartier Awards. This is the group that decides on the recipient of the annual Award of Merit, presented in association with the Daily Telegraph. I cannot begin to explain my delight and honour at being asked.
My first jury lunch was in a private room at Cartier on Bond Street, and I was almost overwhelmed by the hospitality. I will admit that, as the sole Irish-based member of the jury, I was quite nervous, and quite honestly in awe of some of my fellow members.
My nervousness probably told in my voice and social awkwardness.
My initial apprehension on entering the room that first day was compounded when I checked the place settings, only to find myself sitting beside one of the greatest names ever to have anything to do with the sport of racing, Sir Peter O’Sullevan.
The bloodstock news pages are full of this news, alongside the announcement of fees for 2025
I was dumbstruck, but not for long as he was the most wonderful lunch partner, and this was the start of a lovely friendship that endued until his death about a decade later.
Incredibly, and thankfully, I am still a member of the jury, and I remember Peter every time I go to another lunch in London to select the latest recipient of the award. I am further reminded of his generosity and warmth when I am invited to the lunch that continues to be staged in his honour, the most recent of which was held during the week of the most recent Tattersalls December Foal Sale. The 28th winner of Sir Peter’s award was the irrepressible and hugely funny John Francome.
A week earlier, the name of this year’s Cartier and Daily Telegraph Award Of Merit winner was revealed, and I am delighted that it was Jessica Harrington, my nominee this year. Each jury member puts forward someone for consideration, and then a vote is taken.
In my 20 years or so on the jury, I believe she is about the fourth or fifth nominee of mine to win. In the immediate aftermath of her selection for the accolade,
Harrington confirmed again why she was a worthy choice when saddling Hotazhell to win the Group 1 Futurity Stakes at Doncaster.
In 2018, at the age of just 71 and some three decades after she starting training, Harrington took the Flat racing world by storm
If you think that I held Sir Peter O’Sullevan in high regard, well here is someone that I equally admire.
Harrington took out a training licence in 1987, but had to wait four years for her first winner Lady Olein in a juvenile hurdle at Leopardstown. The Earl of Dunraven’s homebred was ridden that day by Peter Scudamore.
In 2018, at the age of just 71 and some three decades after she starting training, Harrington took the Flat racing world by storm when Alpha Centauri won four Group 1 races – the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Royal Ascot’s Coronation Stakes, the Falmouth Stakes and the Prix Jacques Le Marois.
While you might think that a pinnacle had been reached in her hugely successful career, it would only seem to have spurred the trainer on to want more.
In 2019 she produced two of the best juvenile fillies in Europe, the Group 1 winners Millisle and Albigna, as well as having in her stables the following year’s Group 1 winner Alpine Star.
That year, 2020, also saw her turn out the Group 1-winning juvenile colt Lucky Vega, in 2021 she saddled Discoveries to win the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and No Speak Alexander to capture the Group 1 Matron Stakes, while in 2022 she won the Group 1 Irish Oaks with Magical Lagoon.
A winner at the elite level on the Flat may not have come her way last year, but it has been business as usual again in 2024.
Oh, and almost by the way, Harrington has trained 11 Cheltenham Festival winners, the most ever by a female, though I have to say that she has little truck with a fuss being made of her gender
This flurry of Group 1 Flat successes have come a decade and more after she had a breakthrough at the highest level in that code with Pathfork in the Group 1 National Stakes at The Curragh. That victory was I am sure especially sweet, as three years earlier she saddled Curtain Call to win the Beresford Stakes, only to see him sent to be trained in Newmarket. After all, Jessie was “only” a National Hunt trainer.
That misnomer was, of course, down to the fact that she had trained more than 20 individual horses who have won Grade 1 races under NH rules, including the brilliant champion chaser Moscow Flyer (13 Grade 1 wins), the Champion Hurdle winner Jezki, who won seven other Grade 1s, and the Gold Cup winner Sizing John.
This is all from a lady whose first Grade 1 NH success was gained with a filly called Dance Beat, bought as a yearling for £1,400 by her late husband Johnny.
Oh, and almost by the way, Harrington has trained 11 Cheltenham Festival winners, the most ever by a female, though I have to say that she has little truck with a fuss being made of her gender when anyone is contextualising her remarkable achievements.
A three-day event rider of renown, Harrington represented Ireland at European, World and Olympic level.
She continues today to have a pivotal role in the sport as president of Eventing Ireland for more than a decade, and was a trainer of the Irish team at the London Olympics in 2012. For some years she also chaired one of our leading equine rescue charities.
Now working alongside her two daughters and son-in-law, she oversees one of the largest training yards in Ireland, and there are few trainers of any sex who can lay claim to have had such success in both codes.
Two years ago, Kirsten Rausing became the first woman in her own right to be honoured with the Award of Merit at the Cartier extravaganza, though the late Queen Elizabeth was given a special Award of Merit in 2000, Patricia and David Thompson were recognised as a couple, and the Head family was honoured as an entity. Jessica Harrington joins this select cohort.
There is one more reason why Harrington deserves to be recognised. In recent years she fought the biggest battle of her life, cancer, and did so with grace.
She has no ego, has always gone about her business in the most professional way, and is a credit to her profession.
She is immensely popular, great fun and wellrespected, and for a lifetime of success, I am particularly pleased that my fellow jurors joined with me and selected her this year.
The great and sadly late Con Power
Skelton, Gredley, Smith. These are just a few of the names that readers will be familiar with in racing circles, but that members of the equestrian world, especially showjumping, will also know only too well.
In Ireland, we have a great crossover between the various disciplines, and, most recently the Wachman family, grandchildren of John and Sue Magnier, have made an impact on the showjumping stage.
Ireland’s love of showjumping, and success at the sport, is understandable. For centuries, and before the growth of the major cities into large urban sprawls, Ireland’s reputation as a green economy was known globally with the majority of the population living in rural parts of the country, and having a strong connection with the land.
Today, a green economy has a different meaning.
Horses were part of most farms, and many children born to the land would have learned about the care of horses, whether they were working animals, or in some cases ponies for enjoyment.
Learning to ride would have been part of childhood, and many riders, whether in showjumping or racing, would have started out this way. In more recent times, pony racing has kick-started the careers of many jockeys.
Today, Ireland can lay claim to having many of the top showjumpers in the world and, at the time of writing, one-quarter of the top 20 ranked riders in the world are Irish – Conor Swail, Daniel Coyle, Shane Sweetnam, Cian O’Connor and Darragh Kenny.
If I called each of these stars and asked them who was the greatest Irish showjumper of all time, I am pretty certain that they would each have one name among their top five – Captain Con Power.
A horseman of extraordinary style, Power died in early November at the age of just 71, having been in poor health for some time. While Power scaled the heights in
sport, the County Wexford native never lost the common touch, and his appearance at places such as the Dublin Horse Show would see him revered by the public, and he was never left alone.
While Power scaled the heights in sport, the County Wexford native never lost the common touch, and his appearance at places such as the Dublin Horse Show would see him revered by the public, and he was never left alone
People wanted to speak with him – and he loved talking himself! A storyteller he could entertain for hours with tales but, behind that public façade, he was father to two outstanding riders, and a great teacher and mentor.
His son Robert won the Grand National on Silver Birch and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Sizing John, while his daughter Elizabeth, Esib to many, has made her name in eventing, but also enjoyed five-star success as a showjumper. Their mum, Mags, came from a famous Wexford equestrian family being Margaret Latta before she married.
Few achievements in showjumping could ever match that of Ireland winning the Aga Khan Trophy at the Dublin Horse Show, the equivalent now of a Nations Cup, three years in a row in the 1970s, and Power was a member of that famous team.
What made him stand out even from his illustrious fellow members, Paul Darragh, Eddie Macken and James Kernan, was that Power rode a different horse each year.
It was truly a golden era, and the four team members were duly accorded superstar status, one that continues to this day.
It was poignant that Macken and Kernan were among the pallbearers at Power’s funeral. While that legendary team is remembered with huge affection, and most would consider what they did to be a career highlight, not so for Power.
Rockbarton, his mount for the third leg of his Aga Khan treble in 1979, gave him his sporting moment that same year in Aachen.
Power won five classes, was the show’s leading rider, and he later said: “Of all the events in my showjumping career, that week in Aachen 1979 was number one.
Rockbarton won the first day out of 82 competitors in the speed class, two days later he won the Puissance, the day after that he won the Nations Cup, and then was fourth in the Grand Prix. Wasn’t that some horse?
“To win a speed class, Puissance and Nations Cup…in Aachen, one of the greatest shows in the world.”
For many years, Power worked for me when I was NH manager at Goffs, part of the inspection team. This was at a time when the company was trying to build the business, and when the concept of the Land Rover Sale, today the Arkle Sale, was conceived.
Power was always welcome in the yards of breeders – the only problem was that he turned each visit into a social occasion!
Trainers often called on him when they had a horse who was not fluent over hurdles or fences, and his skill at teaching horses, as well as riders, was second to none.
“Ronnie never forgot his roots, the small breeder, or his manners. Whenever I penned anything that resembled even a small compliment to one of his stallions, I could be sure of an email to say thanks
He was responsible for the early career of Bertram Allen, and he had the Magnier boys under his wing, too, when they were competing as teenagers.
The turnout for Power’s funeral was a clear indication of the huge affection people had for him, and he is best summed up by a comment that David Broome made to James Kernan on learning of Power’s death.
Kernan said: “David Broome phoned me last night and he described Con as a great horseman, great athlete and a proper gentleman.”
The loss of another great horseman
Continuing on a sad note, one of Ireland’s best-known and best-loved stallion masters died in mid-October, Ronnie O’Neill of Whytemount Stud.
A quietly spoken man, he built his business on being friendly, accommodating, and providing NH breeders with well-bred, quality stallions at affordable prices.
O’Neill was once honoured by the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association for his achievements, and I recall describing him on the night as “one of the many great, unsung heroes of our industry”.
His story was so inspiring, and the success of Whytemount is very much a family one, as Ronnie’s wife Linda and children have all played a role.
I commented after the news of his death that “Ronnie never forgot his roots, the small breeder, or his manners. Whenever I penned anything that resembled even a small compliment to one of his stallions, following success for one of their progeny, I could be sure of an email to say thanks.”
O’Neill had his finger on the pulse.
Sadly, he was unable to attend the Connolly’s Red Mills / The Irish Field Breeder of the Year dinner in July this year for yet another award.
The many tributes on social media show how popular he was, from small breeders who were grateful for the kindness shown to them by all the team at Whytemount Stud, to other stallion owners, Flat and NH, who were in awe of what he had achieved.
O’Neill and his family did not have big-money backers; they invested their own money, often in horses no others would stand, and duly reaped the rewards.
Success came about through hard work, and boy did he work hard, and being client focused.
“Ronnie never forgot his roots, the small breeder, or his manners. Whenever I penned anything that resembled even a small compliment to one of his stallions, I could be sure of an email to say thanks
A count on the one word used most by people describing him was that he was a gentleman.
O’Neill’s life with horses spanned many generations, though his death came at the age of just 74.
He started out as an aspiring jockey with Phonsie O’Brien and Paddy Mullins. He progressed from being in the saddle to training, most often with horses that he bred, and sometimes they were also ridden by a family member.
He was always at pains to emphasise that all of his success was down to a team effort, though you could replace the word “team” with “family”.
An unraced half-brother to Shahrastani, Shahanndeh was the first thoroughbred sire at Whytemount, and following his early demise, Stowaway, a son of Slip Anchor, was bought.
Slow to be appreciated by breeders, Stowaway was used extensively and with great success by O’Neill, and the stallion went on to be the busiest sire in Europe one year, and be crowned a champion jumps sire.
The current stallion roster at Whytemount has expanded considerably, and what a tribute to him it would be should it contain another champion.
The roster includes the very popular Affinisea, and the highly-rated Mojo Star.
A horseman to his fingertips, O’Neill’s eye for quality was second to none. Many will miss his warm welcome and smile.
