TWO of the three judges of this year’s Dublin Horse Show young event horse finals, which were actually held in Lambertstown, Co Meath, competed at Le Lion d’Angers last week and both finished in the money on two Irish Sport Horses.

The higher placed of the pair in fifth in the seven-year-old championship was Britain’s Hayden Hankey who was in the bronze medal position following dressage but lost his hold on that spot when picking up two cross-country time penalties with Heads Up.

Hayden owns the OBOS Quality 004 gelding in partnership with Catherine Witt and while the bay had one eventing start in 2019, he mainly competed in working hunter competitions and was crowned champion worker at that season’s Horse Of The Year Show. Heads Up was bred in Co Limerick by US-based international show jumper Paul O’Shea out of the Lux Z mare The Show Girl who was jumped here in 2009 by O’Shea himself and now international event rider, Padraig McCarthy.

Caroline Powell, the longtime England-based New Zealand international, was the other Lambertstown judge who competed at Le Lion where she finished eighth in the six-year-old championship on CBI Aldo who had a fence down show jumping. This bay gelding by Goodluck VDL was bred in Co Offaly by Ray Carroll out of the Ramon mare KMS Eclipse.

Dourough Ferro Class Act

In a further reference to Lambertstown, it was here that Emily MacMahon broke Dourough Ferro Class Act who finished seventh in the six-year-old championship at Le Lion d’Angers under Co Meath’s Sarah Ennis.

Brendan Corscadden had helped Sweden’s Agnes Fabricius buy the S Creevagh Ferro gelding and kept him on grass livery. It was he who decided to send the horse to Emily and after she had broken the eye-catching dark bay he first went show jumping with Michelle Kenny before finding his way to the Ennis yard.

Sarah thought so much of the horse that she bought him from Agnes and he now competes in the ownership of the rider’s husband Niki Potterton and Wendy Harris.

Dourough Ferro Class Act was bred in Co Cavan by Gordon Drury out of the OBOS Quality 004 mare ISHD Class Act. He first came to notice when sold as a three-year-old by Pat Fenlon at the 2018 Go For Gold Sale.

Other graduates of Goresbridge Horse Sales’ flagship auction who competed at Le Lion last week were the seven-year-olds Cooley Nutcracker (ridden by France’s Astier Nicolas), MBF Cooley Permission To Land (ridden by Cole Horn of the USA) and Rehy Revelation (ridden by Britain’s Jack Pinkney).