16/08/2026
Need to save this here as it revives memories of Munich Olympics, when a trio of us ex Kellett’s girls headed to the Games to support the Irish horses, especially Ambassador.
We had no tickets for the show jumping final but were “smuggled” into the Italian stable block thanks to the Italian grooms we knew.
Quite some experience as I remember it paulacullen # 😊
# From a Plough Horse's Foal to Olympic Gold: The Remarkable Story of Ambassador and the Clancy Family
Every great champion has an origin story. Some are written in the pages of studbooks, tracing back generations of blue-blooded aristocracy. Others begin in more humble settings—in a muddy farmyard, perhaps, with a working mare who spent her days pulling a plough.
This is the story of **Ambassador**, an Irish Sport Horse who rose from those very beginnings to stand on the Olympic podium in Munich, 1972. And it is the story of the Clancy family of Waterford, who bred him and whose passion for horses continues to produce champions decades later.
# # The Breeder's Gamble: A Working Mare and a Thoroughbred
**Tom Clancy senior**—known to all as Tomás—was born on the family farm in Island Stradbally, Co. Waterford, in December 1918. From an early age, horses were woven into the fabric of his daily life. The farm was his world, and the horses were his partners in it.
Among them was a heavy working mare, the kind of sturdy, dependable animal that pulled the plough and hauled machinery. She was not a show horse. She was not bred for the arena. She was bred for work—honest, graft, and sweat.
But Tomás had a vision.
He was friends with Maurice Phelan of Ballinabanogue Stud, who stood the Thoroughbred stallion **Nordlys**. One day, the two men talked. They made a simple decision: they would cover the working mare with Nordlys and see what they might produce.
In 1963, horseboxes were a rarity in rural Ireland. There was no fancy transport. The mare herself was walked the few miles to the stud. It was a practical, unglamorous arrangement—the kind that happens a thousand times across the Irish countryside.
But this time, it produced something extraordinary.
# # Ambassador: A Star in the Making
**Ambassador was born in 1964.**
He was not an easy horse. Those who knew him described him as highly strung, a bundle of nervous energy and raw talent. He was sold on to Denis (Dinny) Ryan as a three-year-old and subsequently passed to Jimmy McEvoy for training. Then came Tommy Brennan, the Irish rider who would first unlock his potential.
Brennan and Ambassador began winning. Not just small classes—major ones. By 1970, the six-year-old gelding was representing Ireland on the **Aga Khan team** at the Dublin Horse Show, one of the most prestigious events on the equestrian calendar. He was young, but he was ready.
He was then sold to **Graziano Mancinelli** of Italy—a rider who was already building a legendary career. But Ambassador's connection to Ireland remained strong. He returned to Dublin in 1971, now wearing Italian colours. He competed once more in the Aga Khan and, in a moment of sheer power, **divided the Puissance**—the high-jump competition—with the wall standing at a monumental **7ft 1in**.
# # Olympic Glory: Munich, 1972
The Olympic Games in Munich were a moment of triumph against a backdrop of tragedy. But for showjumping fans, they were also the stage for one of the sport's finest moments.
Riding Ambassador, Graziano Mancinelli claimed the **individual gold medal**. The Irish-bred gelding carried his Italian rider to the top of the world.
It was a victory that transcended borders. Ambassador was bred by an Irish farmer who had covered a working mare with a Thoroughbred stallion. He was trained and developed in Ireland. He was sold to Italy—and he brought Italy its gold.
And all of it started on a farm in Waterford, with a mare who had never jumped a fence in her life.
# # The Legacy Continues: Tom Clancy Junior
Tomás retired from breeding in the early 1970s, but the Clancy name would not fade from the sport. His son, **Tom Clancy Junior**, inherited his father's passion and took up the mantle. He would go on to prove that the family's success was no accident.
In 1981, Tom Junior purchased the Irish Draught filly **Mish Lass**. He kept her as a broodmare, and her second foal—born in 1985, by the Thoroughbred stallion *Spectrach*—was a grey filly named **Bluebird**.
Bluebird was special. She went on to represent **Great Britain** on Nations Cup teams, ridden by John Popely at the sport's greatest venues: Aachen, Falsterbo, Rome. But her crowning achievement came in **1997**, when she won the **Hickstead Derby**—one of the most demanding and revered competitions in showjumping.
The Clancy name was once again written into equestrian history.
# # The Bloodlines That Endure
To this day, Tom Clancy Junior and his wife Deirdre continue to breed horses on their Waterford farm. They are active members of the Waterford Sport Horse Breeders Group, committed to producing horses that meet the demands of modern showjumping and eventing.
The bloodlines of Bluebird live on.
**TC Miss Cruise**, a 2007 mare by *Cruising*, is out of a half-sister to Bluebird. She has already produced a c**t by *Financial Reward*, the 2011 Croker Cup winner.
**TC Silver Bounce**, a 2009 mare by the late Irish Draught sire *Grange Bouncer*, represents another powerful damline. This is the line that produced top eventers like *Ashdale Cruise Master* (ridden by Oliver Townend) and *Market Focus* (ridden by Bill Levett). TC Silver Bounce has recently given birth to a c**t by the Thoroughbred stallion *Ansiei*.
New champions are being born. New stories are being written.
# # A Story About More Than Horses
The story of Ambassador and the Clancy family is not just a tale of equestrian success. It is a story about **vision**, **persistence**, and **the willingness to take a chance**. It's about a farmer who looked at a working mare and saw not what she was, but what she could become.
It is a story about **generations**—about a passion for horses passed from father to son, about bloodlines that carry not just genetic potential, but a family's legacy.
And it is a story about **Ireland** itself: a small island that has produced some of the greatest sport horses the world has ever seen, rising from the same green fields that have sustained families for centuries.
# # What's Next for the Clancys?
The Clancy family farm is not a museum of past glories. It is a living, breathing operation. Every new foal is a new hope. Every year brings new possibilities.
Tom Junior and Deirdre are not resting on the achievements of Ambassador or Bluebird. They are looking forward, breeding for the future, and continuing the work that began when Tomás walked a working mare a few miles to a stallion named Nordlys.
