JUST after the electric atmosphere of the Laidlaw Cup championship had subsided, Assagart Lord Lancer’s dam entered Ring 1 in owners John and Mary Margaret Roche’s bid to recapture her 2014 crown.

And Assagart My Only Hope became one of the few mares to do so in the 32-year history of this broodmare and foal combination championship when her number was called out last during Michael Slavin’s reverse order of winners. Not only did her Castleforbes Lord Lancer son make history, as the 2014 Breeders Championship winning foal went on to win the Dublin young horse title last Friday, but it was also a remarkable 24 hours for West Clare breeding.

As with the following day’s supreme hunter champion Mossy, My Only Hope was also bred in the Banner County by Kilkee man Gerard Kelly. Bought by Dermot O’Sullivan, who won All Ireland two-year-old and three-year-old titles at Kildysart and Bantry with her, the Assagart prefix was added when he sold her to the Foulksmills family four years ago.

Always a favourite of his late father Michael, John and his mother Mary Margaret savoured an emotional win at Dublin the following August when the eye-catching grey, tracing back to Big Sink Hope and the Anglo-Arabian Felice de Champeix, won her first title.

“I’d say she’s probably the best living show mare when you look at what she’s won: two All Irelands, then her Near Dock foal won the All Ireland colt final at Ballinasloe; two Breeders’ Championships and now her three-year-old, that won the Breeders with her three years ago, has gone on to be the Dublin young horse champion. That’s the first time a Breeders Championship winning foal has won the Laidlaw Cup,” declared Roche this week.

“You can’t really compare her to Assagart Kit. They were different times and she was a different kind of legend,” he said, referring to his father’s multiple Coote Cup champion.

At foot in 2014 was her future young horse champion and Roche repeated the winning sire formula as this year’s chesnut colt is another by the Holsteiner sire Castleforbes Lord Lancer, who stands with Alex Deon at his Old Rectory Stud in Tynagh.

Rated by Roche as the best foal he has bred, the March-born colt and his now 12-year-old dam, shown by Brendan Tobin, were German judges Jens Meyer and Harm Thormählen’s top-scoring combination. They qualified for this year’s final at Armagh Show.

While the Roche family are seasoned finalists, it was Banner County newcomers Brendan and Aidan O’Sullivan who filled the reserve place with their young mare Miss Cranny Lancelot and another March-born foal, her O.B.O.S Quality filly.

Bought from Kilrush neighbour Noel McMahon, who bred the Lancelot five-year-old, she completed a 1-2 for Clare breeders in this year’s line-up. It was another brother Dermot, back this year with his 2015 champion Aidensfield Flamenco, who had sold Assagart My Only Hope to the Roche family.

Last Saturday was just Miss Cranny Lancelot’s third showing appearance this year, having qualified at Charleville for Dublin and then winning the broodmare championship on home ground at Kildysart the previous weekend. It has been a busy couple of weeks for the brothers with Aidan’s recent wedding and, while he gained a bride, the brothers will have one less horse as their winning foal was bought afterwards by the Glynn family from Athlone.

Taking third place was the Mayo couple Martin & Mary Murphy with their Loughehoe Guy-sired Frenchfort Black Beauty and her filly foal by Sligo Candy Boy, another combination to qualify at Charleville in June. Although a fan of traditional breeding, Murphy reasoned he needed to add continental lines for his Breeders Championship attempt and it paid off when he recorded his best result to date in this final.

Margaret Jeffares’s Ballykelly Notalot was the second five-year-old mare in the top-four (Miss Cranny Lancelot was the other) and the 2015 Dublin young horse champion placed fourth with her first foal. This was Ballykelly Mistral de Semilly by the WBFSH top-ranked show jumping stallion Diamant de Semilly and it will be interesting to see if this Lancelot mare can achieve a Dublin young horse and Breeders’ Championship unique double too.

Derry Rothwell’s Millenium Cruise was the highest-placed of his three combinations this year and his 2011 champion placed fifth with her Dignified Van’t Zorglieft colt, Greenhall Limited Edition. Donegal owners Paddy and Richard Gildea took sixth place with their Cougar mare Grove Hill Heather and her Lancelot colt Correnagh Picasso.

“It was a pleasure to see this foal. You could go to any show in Europe with him, very well-balanced, very good construction,” said Meyer afterwards. He also noted how it was interesting to see how international performance lines had gravitated around Europe through the use of A.I.