TWELVE horses have qualified for the Young Eventhorse Series RDS national equestrian championship for four- and five-year-old Irish Draughts which takes place at Lambertstown on Tuesday.

Among the dozen is one stallion, Katie Stafford’s Dennistown Prince Of Pride, a much-beribboned and highly acclaimed five-year-old by Crosstown Pride (a son of Crosstown Dancer) out of the Golden Trump mare Ballylusk Sunday Dawn. The chesnut’s small first crop of foals are now yearlings.

There are five other five-year-olds entered including Lisa Talbot’s chesnut gelding Becalida, who is by Scrapman (another son of Crosstown Dancer), and Sammy Weston’s chesnut mare, Tullys Cherry, a daughter of the British-bred stallion Skip And Sea.

A trio of home-bred four-year-olds has been entered: Michael Grady’s Murrisk Lad, who will be ridden by the owner’s grandniece, Amy Grady; Mary Margaret Roche’s Lansdown mare Assagart Hope And Glory, who will be ridden by veterinary surgeon Diarmuid Ryan; and Mary Doyle’s Echo King gelding Grageelagh Stormy King on whom event rider Patrick Whelan takes the mount.

Another chesnut, Grageelagh Stormy King is the first foal out of the Sir Stormy Breeze mare Stormy Madam who was reserve in the older performance Irish Draught championship at Dublin in 2014. A regular rider/exhibitor in these classes, winning with King Flagmount in 2016, Co Wicklow’s Alicia Devlin Byrne has qualified her four-year-old WRS Elvis gelding, The Kings Silver, who was second in a ridden hunter class at Killossery last Saturday.

Hollypark Horses, who won this championship in 2019 with Hollypark Prince (by Céide Prince), return with the 2017 grey gelding Hollypark Troy (by Carrigfada Troy). He will be partnered by Patrick Moloney who also qualified Hollypark Masters Choice for the older horses’ championship. The chesnut Huntingfield Ruler gelding is one of just two six-year-olds in the class, the other being Marie Helene Finegan’s MHF Sea Ice, a grey gelding by Carrickcottage Star.

Huntingfield Ruler is also sire of Michael Dilger’s LCS Time To Shine. That 10-year-old chesnut qualified under Ciara Dennigan who will also be on board Dermot Hebron’s home-bred Derisney Glen Cool Dancer, a nine-year-old grey gelding by Crosstown Dancer who was third in the ridden Irish Draught class at Killossery Lodge Stud on Saturday and sixth in the 1m working hunter class where LCS Time To Shine was fifth.

Not too surprisingly, the majority of the horses entered are grey although another chesnut mare is the 11-year-old Ballytrim Molly (by Ballytrim Midnight Dancer) on whom owner Claire Liddle has won two EI100 (Amateur) events this season. In unrestricted company, Caoimhe Murphy has also competed at EI00 level in recent months on Captain Midnight, an eight-year-old black gelding by Young Carrabawn.

The oldest horse to qualify for Tuesday’s championship final is the 16-year-old Lachain Blue Boy who is ridden for owner Eamonn Darcy by Craughwell’s Amanda Fahy. The grey has competed in the final on five previous occasions, finishing a best-placed second in their class in 2019 to the eventual supreme champion, Stormy Diamond Lady.

Others who competed at Dublin in 2019 and have qualified for Tuesday are Veronica Agnew’s Peters Pride, Chris Carter and Damien McCormack’s Cloonan Hector and Jenny Williams’s Gneeve King William.