IT was Pat Finn’s afternoon at Ring 1 yesterday. The winning owner of the Laidlaw Cup young horse champion Frenchfort Kildysart Lady, was then the breeder of both winning mares in The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship finals.

In the opening show jumping section, Valerie Davis’s Ballinasloe Fair buy Becca Baby was the winning mare along with her Landino VDL colt foal Cloughroe Maximus. It was their Donegal owner’s first finalist in the Breeders’ Championship and the pair qualified early on in the year at Lurgan.

It was the second part of a Dublin double, as her Castleview Lady Georgina won the Irish Draught mare championship on Thursday. Becca Baby, bought as a foal from her Oranmore breeder, is by O.B.O.S Quality 004 and her dam Frenchfort Loughehoe Lady is by Loughehoe Guy.

This year’s judges - Michaela Bowling, deputising for Harm Sievers, and Philipp Baumgart - selected Martin Murphy’s Castlegate Sweet Emotion and her Sligo Candy Boy colt foal as the winning combination in the following eventing section. Another Finn-bred, she is by Mermus R out of the Limmerick dam Frenchfort Limerick Lady.

Pat Finn also owned the reserve combination in the show jumping section: the Dutch-bred Penelopé (Jardonnay VDL) and her foal FSH Ruby, a Diarado filly foal. In the eventing section, the reserve champion was Hurst Show Team’s LCC Yoko (Iroko) and Tattygare Here Again by Caspar 232.

“I think the standard, especially in the eventers was really high. I really like the eventing types and movement,” Baumgart said afterwards.

“It’s hard for the judges, I think, because we don’t know the pedigree. I include that myself when I judge a foal and it’s so important to know, not just the mother and father but to the fifth and sixth generation. So the pedigree in the damline is important to know.”

Full report in next week’s issue.