Storm kills fillies worth €1m

A group of 5 fillies worth an estimated €1m (£830,000) have died after being electrocuted during Storm Darwin (13 February) in Ireland.

The yearlings were in a paddock at Kilfrush Stud, Knocklong, Co Limerick, when an electricity cable snapped and the current travelled through the ground, killing the horses instantly.

The alarm was raised by a member of staff, who went to check on the horses during the storm. The horses were checked 3 times daily.

One of the fillies — a daughter of New Approach — was purchased for the stud in November for €510,000 (£420,000).

Stud manager David Ryan, of Aran Bloodstock, said that while all the yearlings “had great potential”, the New Approach filly was a “rare commodity, which doesn’t come on to the market often”.

Mr Ryan bought the filly as breeding stock to build up a quality broodmare band for the stud’s Qatari owner, Mubarak al-Naemi. The 300-acre stud was purchased last summer for an undisclosed sum.

Martha Terry

H&H features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on dogs of all shapes and sizes. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs, one a street dog from Gambia who was abandoned at three weeks old. Now, her constant companion, whether by her feet at her desk or walking cross-country courses, is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.