WITH Ballinasloe Show moving from its traditional pre-Fair date, the town’s Fair Green will see three weekends of activity. Last Sunday saw the six-acre site double up as a car park while the annual Horse Fair takes place tomorrow, Monday and the following Country Fair Saturday.

The last of the Irish Shows Association’s 2019 All Ireland finals were hosted in the adjacent showgrounds and the advantage of having a dedicated ring for these championships meant a prompt start.

The first All Ireland champion of the day was James Naan’s Tullana Lisabelle. The Frederiksminde Hazy Match filly topped judge Padraig Hynes’s line-up of 10 hopefuls in the Parkmore Stables and Fr. Christy McCormack-sponsored three-year-old filly final from the start, as did the reserve champion, Cathal Dunne’s Clonberne-sired Blackhaven Molly, by Clonberne Boy and Kate Rath Doyle’s third-placed roan Clonbullogue Lass, by Monaghanstown Boy.

Supreme pony champion at Clogher Valley as a yearling and a Clifden winner last year (she was second this year), Tullana Lisabelle was bought as a foal from her breeder Seamus Hynds. “She has a wonderful temperament and is a pleasure to own,” said James.

“The top three ponies were outstanding, excellent broodmares in the future and true Connemara type,” remarked Hynes, whose ponies carry the well-known Canal prefix.

The influence of the late Ben Purple sire Holycross was stamped on the following Horse Sport Ireland Irish Draught foal finals. 16 colts, two less than last year, lined out in the opening championship, which was won by Denis O’Brien from Rathmore, on the Cork-Kerry border. As an added bonus his first All Ireland champion is by his own Holycross stallion Goldsmith Country Oliver, one of the four stallions approved at the IDHS(GB) inspections in 2016.

Reserve went to Julianne Corrigan’s colt by Carrabawn Cross and Noel Sheridan’s Cappa Amadeus finalist leapfrogged from the initial back line to third place.

Anything nice for me? Oxview Grace getting to grips with her Cup at Ballinasloe \ Susan Finnerty

Scrapman filly takes reserve

Both Draught foal finals were judged by Jimmy Canavan and Denis Dullea (who stepped aside when the two finalists by Killountain Cross, owned by his son Charles, were being assessed by his co-judge).

They had just eight fillies forward in the next final, which was half of last year’s number and here their champion was Gerry Ferguson’s smart Oxview Grace. By another Holycross son Inisfree The Holy Grail, her win was another of last Sunday’s first time All Ireland wins for her delighted Foxford owners.

“A great way to end the showing season,” remarked Gerry’s son, Declan who showed their champion’s Harkaway Lionhawk dam, My Rosie.

Younger sires also made their mark in this final with John Bracken’s Scrapman filly taking the reserve place and Denis McGrath’s Clougher Ceide, by Ceide Prince, filling the other top-three places.

For the overall Irish Draught foal championship between the colt and filly champions for the Pat Carty cup, the judges opted for Oxview Grace.

“What we did find was the joints of the colt foals was certainly not as good as what we found in the fillies,” Jimmy Canavan commented afterwards. “We had more quality fillies and it was much easier pick out your winner and places in the filly class. While we were very happy with the colt winner, down along the line wasn’t brilliant and you’d have to say overall, there are problems with joints.

“Maybe the mistake being made is they’re putting too much weight on these foals. When you go for too much protein in the feed, you’re putting too much weight on the joints, that shouldn’t be there.”

“The most important thing is that the foal moves well, if you have good movement you could overlook little things. The body can improve but the movement that you see in front of you, that’s probably not going to change.

“The other thing we did see was some foals needed a little bit of attention from the farrier, some were a little pin-toed, with too much hoof on the inside.”

He also had advised owners to train foals to move freely when led. “In both classes, you could see some holding the foal too short and not giving the foal room to move its head. The foal should be standing and moving straight, not with the head turned in towards the handler. So what happens there is you get the impression that the foal is moving wrong at the back end. If you do the homework, you’ll have a good Leaving Cert!” added Canavan.

The Gerry Stronge and John Harney-sponsored donkey mare and foal final, judged by Norma Cooke in the adjoining ring, saw a win for Easkey owner Kevin Kilcawley, ahead of Pat O’Dea and Sean Moran’s entries.