Tipperary horse helps Japan win a medal at the Olympics

The Olympics are full of amazing stories and this one links Tipperary to a piece of Olympic history at the 2024 Games.
Tipperary Olympians have a proud history stretching back to the very start with hammer throwers, runners and rowers right through to Daire Lynch who secured a medal linking him with Bob Tisdell nearly 100 years ago.

We all hope Sharlene Mawdsley can earn another one for Tipperary, yet a little known story is of how a Tipperary bred horse shone at this years Paris Olympics for Japan.

The story is the journey of a horse and the dream of Martin J. Collins who bred horses on his farm in Cashel.
‘MGH Grafton St’ is a horse that helped in a huge way secure a team bronze medal for Japan and individual seventh place at this year’s games and the horse came from Cashel, Tipperary.

Bred and raised in the best of soil the sixteen-year-old gelding began life in Tipperary before arriving in Paris a couple of weeks ago.

Martin J. Collins passed away almost a decade ago but took a keen interest in horses and cattle during his life.

The 2008 gelding was bred by Martin Collins and the horse changed hands until the rider at the Olympic Games, Yoshiaki Oiwa, bought the horse.

Martin’s daughter Fidelma takes up the story of the horse from Tipperary that represented Japan in Paris at the Olympic Games and took home the bronze medal last week: “The horse was bred in Mocklershill, Cashel in 2008. Dad had a lot of horses at this time, maybe as many as 70.”

The horse was originally called Bannerfarm Rocket, and Martin, originally from Querrin in County Clare, bred the horse on his farm in Cashel.

Registered as Bannerfarm Rocket, the horse was then purchased by Jonathan and Jane Clarke before going to the stables of renowned Equestrian champion Mrs. Pippa Funnell under the MGH Sports Horses banner of Padraig and Lucy McCarthy.

They renamed the horse with the ‘MGH’ prefix. In 2019 the horse won the Burghley Horse trials securing £110,000 in doing so.
Pippa kept the horse until Japanese rider Yoshiaki Oiwa purchased him in January of this year and the rest, as they say, is history.

The horse had been a firm favourite before he was sold and remained at the same yard with the trainer ensuring no change of system or stables ahead of the Olympics so the Japanese rider bought a house in the area and moved there.

There ‘Squirrel’, as the horse was affectionately known, remained in the stable as the Japanese rider got to know the animal well.

Horse and rider then went on to compete in Paris at the Games. The journey has a happy ending with the Olympic bronze medal in Eventing being secured at the games in France.

It is always hugely emotional when an Olympic medal is won but the happiness went from France to Japan and to Ireland too.
Martin, who passed away in 2015, always wanted to train a Champion horse so he would have loved to see how the career of his foal all panned out and ended in Olympic glory.

It is of “immense pride” for the family. Fidelma, who lives in Tipperary, credits all those nurturing the horse through the years for their efforts in ensuring the horse reached the heights of Olympic glory.

The owners across the years all added to the story but the origins were on the farm near Cashel in Tipperary where Martin bred ‘Bannerfarm Rocket’.

Across his lifetime Martin had an interest in cattle and horses and was heavily involved in the Clonmel Show playing an important part on the Committee there.

He was one of the first to bring in Limousin cattle to the island and also played a key role in the Irish Simmental Society.

When he set up his stud farm near Cashel he hoped to breed a champion horse and now, many years later, his horse has helped secure an Olympic medal.

It is a long way from Cashel to Japan but a horse from Cashel, in France, is now part of Olympic history.