THE powerful axis of Co Wicklow rider/producer Jane Bradbury and owner Daphne Tierney had their usual dispersal of ridden hunters during last year’s Dublin Horse Show and now bid to retain the Top Spec supreme championship with yet another strong team of young horses.

Last August, Bloomfield Excelsior, a four-year-old Jack Of Diamonds gelding, won the only heavyweight class en route to claiming the coveted title. This year, there are two classes in this weight division with the Tierney/Bradbury representative being Bloomfield Ambition, one of nine entries in the four-year-old class.

In common with Excelsior, this bay gelding is out of a Cruising mare from a good performance family and is closely related to the three-star eventer Boundalong being by the same jumping sire, Royal Concorde. The Gerard Murphy-bred gelding hasn’t been out much but did win his class at both Adamstown and Bannow, finishing reserve at the latter venue.

Heading the list of entries in the four-year-old section is the Balmoral champion, Stephen Byers’s Garrison Royal gelding Foxcatcher. Diane Gibson, chairman of the RUAS horse committee, has two entries in the older heavyweight class including West Coast Law, a six-year-old gelding by West Coast Cavalier, sire of the 2013 reserve heavyweight champion Let’s Coast.

An interesting entry due to come before judges Jack Cochrane and Allister Hood on Friday morning is Terry Johnston’s six-year-old Capitalist gelding Samsons Court. The Portadown exhibitor’s young event horses have been in excellent form of late which augurs well for next week.

The older lightweight geldings are scheduled to get the hunter judging under way before Libby Cooke and Helen Hillard on Thursday morning and here the standout exhibit has to be Rosemary Connors’s home-bred Woodfield Alright, the 2013 weight champion and reserve supreme.

The Albano seven-year-old may have most to fear from fellow Co Waterford-based Whitfield Jack Of Hearts, Cheryl Cusack’s Ricardo Z gelding who was third here last August before winning the ladies’ side-saddle class.

There are 14 entries in the following four-year-old geldings’ class including the Bannow champion, Laura Kelly’s home-bred Kings Master chesnut Marley And Me who was fifth in the all-Ireland last July, and John Henry’s The Master, a bay son of Porsch who landed the hunter championship at Oldcastle.

Dick McElligott took this class (and the four-year-old championship) in 2013 with The Gadfly (by Guidam), who was recently sold as an eventer to the USA, and this year he has entered the Mullentine Cavalier gelding Rustic. P.J. Casey, winner of the Diana Gilna Keogh trophy last year as leading show horse rider, will be on board his own Kingsman, a bay by the Belgian Warmblood stallion Omar.

Ann O’Grady and John Codd have entered Ballingowan Harmony (by Watermill Swatch) and Rehy Forty Five (by Rehy High Society), who have both competed in young event horse classes, while one of last season’s top three-year-olds, the Hold Up Premier bay Columbo, represents owner Pearl O’Rourke.

Last year’s class winner and the 2014 lightweight champion, Patrick Cotter’s Harlequin Du Carel bay I Am A Star, is one of eight in the five-year-old geldings’ division where the Bradbury/Tierney entry is Bloomfield Incognito, a bay by Alda Cruise out of a Cavalier Royale mare.

Only six are entered in the sole mares’ class but they include David Sloan’s home-bred six-year-old Drumlane Sally, an Upgrade half-sister to Drumlane Susie (by Cavaliere), a winner here 12 months ago and champion mare in 2012.

Among the three four-year-olds are Bob O’Keeffe’s West Coast Cavalier chesnut Shanagore Jenga, who competed in the masterclass at Camphire last weekend, and Lynne Spence’s KOM Limited Edition, a grey by King Of Mourne out of the unraced Beneficial mare Paolmore.

Perhaps Rosemary Connors’s best chance of achieving top honours again lies in Wendy Phipps’s Healys Enigma, one of nine entries in the four-year-old mediumweight geldings’ class. By the Irish Draught Bellews Mate out of a Ballyhoura Breeze mare, this grey was champion at Barnadown early in the season when he had Bloomfield Executive in reserve. He also claimed the overall title at Middleton.

McElligott took the red last August with the Kieran Ryan-produced OBOS Quality 004 gelding Annaghanmore Huntsman and this time around the Straffan owner sends Monbeg Bounty, a bay by the thoroughbred Royal Storm.Lawrence Patterson has entered Drumnaconnell Sniper, a son of Quality out of his own Kildalton Gold mare Special Choice. The chesnut was sixth in hand last year to the Emperor Augustus bay Island George, then owned by George Chapman but now lining up in the ownership of Terry and Sally Johnston.

The five-year-old geldings’ class is also strong with the bottom-listed of eight being Tierney’s aforementioned Amiro M chesnut Bloomfield Executive, a winner at Balmoral in May and twice since. Also entered are the winning pair of Alison Crozier’s VDL Arkansas bay Dragons Den and Its The Kings Speech, a Kings Master bay owned by Tiernan Gill and Philip Scott. Pearl Roche Fanning’s Pearl’s Bouncer won the older geldings’ class last August and the Grange Bouncer grey returns against six others, The Hurst Show Team’s home-bred Tattygare Good To Go is also bidding for a repeat win in the mares’ class. The middleweights will be judged by Mathew Lawrence and Denise Richardson, starting at 10.30am on Friday.