HUGE crowds attended both days of the sixth Flavours of Fingal Show at Newbridge House last weekend with tailbacks in both directions on the M1 as drivers headed for the off-ramps at Junction 4, heading for Donabate.

The equestrian programme was organised by members and supporters of the Fingal Harriers in association with the Events Management team at Fingal County Council, whose Paul Barnes was particularly helpful, according to John Lyons of the equestrian committee.

There was a very healthy €1,000 prize-fund on offer for Saturday’s ridden championship which was sponsored by Grange Builders Providers in Baldoyle.

“The equestrian programme has grown hugely since this show first started and we have plans in place to bring it up to the next level,” said Lyons, whose son Ross was judge for the ever popular dog shows on Saturday and Sunday, which were sponsored by Connolly’s Red Mills.

“We will be looking at this year’s programme and, if some classes didn’t fill, they will be omitted next year in favour of others.”

Unfortunately, as is ever the case during the summer months, there were clashes with other equestrian fixtures, such as the Irish Pony Club one-day event at the nearby Killossery Lodge Stud and the North East Region qualifier for the Association of Irish Riding Clubs’ dressage championships at Ravensdale.

The highlight of the equestrian programme was Saturday’s aforementioned ridden championship which was won by Pushkin (Claire Gilna), a four-year-old Womanizer gelding produced by Kieran Ryan for well-known Co Kildare owner Dick McElligott. The grey had first won the middleweight hunter class where he always topped the line-up of judges Charlotte Hurst and Aubrey Chapman.

“I bought him as a two-year-old over the phone last November 12 months,” said McElligott. “I never saw him before then but the man who rang me about him, I’d have more than a little time for.

“Since I bought him, the horse spent much of his time at Freynestown Stud with my son Ryan (The Irish Field’s racing and sales correspondent) with Claire keeping a good eye on his progress. Having been sent up to Kieran, he was second at Balmoral and, of course, now heads to Dublin.”

The champion was bred in Co Galway by John Murphy and is out of the Coevers Diamond Boy mare Diamond Leaf Lady. “What I like about the Womanizers is that they all leave the ground,” concluded McElligott, who was presented with the Jimmy Ryan memorial trophy.

Gilna also rode the heavyweight winner Ardnacashel Cruise, a 2012 Ringfort Cruise gelding who was making his debut. The grey, purchased as a three-year-old at Goresbridge by owner Kieran Ryan (who rode him in the championship), was bred in Co Down by Janice Reddy out of the Amiro M mare Graf Amir, who was evented by Lesley Webb.

The lightweight winner was the Porsch gelding Spireview Porsch who is out of a White Clover mare. The chesnut was ridden by P.J. Casey who is producing the five-year-old for his Co Meath breeder Damian Carry.

The opening small hunter class, in which there were 17 horses forward, was won by the Brian Murphy-partnered The Pickpocket, a four-year-old by the Irish Draught WRS Sun Rich out of a Connemara mare.

“I bought him broken and riding in January from Jim Derwin,” said owner Pat Loughlin. “He did 22 days hunting – 21 as a hireling – and, since going showing, was third in Balmoral, won in Thomastown and was second in Gorey.”

Murphy also topped the line-up in the Irish Draught class on Sean Barker’s Gortfree Lakeside Lad.

Barker stands this fellow’s sire, Gortfree Hero, in Treanlaur, Co Mayo and bred the grey out of the Ginger Dick mare Springvale Rose. Gortfree Lakeside Lad has qualified for the Irish Draught performance championship at Dublin having finished second in his class at Rincoola under Murphy’s cousin Linda.

The Gowran Hunt Horses team of Loughlin and Murphy combined to win the cob class with the maxi The Peaky Blinder who went on to be reserve ridden champion.

The five-year-old grey gelding featured in these pages last month as supreme champion at the show in Spruce Lodge run by the Wicklow Branch of the Irish Draught Horse Breeders Association.

A son of Rockrimmmon Silver Diamond, he was bred in Co Mayo, by Sandra and Peter Noone, out of the Mountain Diamond mare Larrigan Coolderry Diamond.

In other classes on day one of the show, the Co Down Hounds’ huntsman Ian Donoughue, who judged the beagles on Sunday, topped the line-up in the coloured horse class with Elana McGuinness’s Tom Tom. The four-year-old skewbald gelding, who was only broken in April, was making his public debut on Saturday.

Co Wicklow’s Alison Clancy won yet another racehorse to riding horse class on the nine-year-old Robin Des Champs gelding Un Atout, while local rider Rebecca Rafter landed the Riostyled side saddle class on the 10-year-old Tjipke gelding Roanwood Mick Dundee.

Claire Gilna’s day wasn’t done in the hunter section as she also topped the line-up in the Connemara class for riders over 16 on Mairead Ryan’s recent purchase Reilly, a nine-year-old Curraghakeen Cashel gelding, with the class for younger riders going to the Genevieve Murphy-ridden Garry Lad, a six-year-old by Killyon King.

Second here on Killough Benedict was Zoe Bolton who, had there not been so much traffic, could have hacked to the show.

Another local rider, Chloe Marks from Swords, who finished second to Gilna with her father Alan’s Killegar Mist, had better luck on Sunday when, in the Hugh Leonard-judged amateur ridden hunter section, she won the middleweight class on her sister Sophie’s Irish Draught mare Barbervilla Lily.

Third under her owner on Saturday in her breed class, the eight-year-old Gortree Hero chesnut was bred in Co Mayo by Michael Jennings out of the Inver Steel mare Ballygarris Rose. While Sophie works full-time with horses, Chloe has just completed a two-year course in animal science.

In the White’s Agri championship, Barbervilla Lily had to settle for the reserve slot behind the heavyweight class winner Prospectus Blue Boy. Ridden by Swords-based Louise Kavanagh, a fund accountant with J.P. Morgan who has owned the grey since he was three, the 13-year-old does a bit of everything.

The lightweight class was won by Niamh Branagan on Thunder, while Joanne Quirke topped the line-up in the traditional Irish horse class with Mark Stillman’s Irish Draught Mister P, a five-year-old bay gelding by Supreme Ginger.

Disappointingly, the in-hand section was poorly supported. Martin Moore showed James Heery’s Donovan 10-year-old Liskillen Princess to win Saturday’s Irish Draught broodmare class.

The ever popular OBOS Quality 004 sired both horses forward in the youngstock division.