THE 13th Irish Draught Horse Breeders National Show returned to Punchestown in glorious late summer sunshine after a year’s absence due to Covid -19. The show was officially opened by Senator Vincent P. Martin, flanked by two representatives of the Garda Mounted Unit on their purebred Irish Draught geldings.
Also present at the opening was Ann Lambert’s Ashfield Bouncer who became the first ever Irish Draught to win the three-year-old Loose Performance Final at the RDS National Championships.
Bought as a yearling by Ann, this athletic colt is by Killinick Bouncer, who stood at Ann’s Grange Stud, out of the Ard Grandpa-sired Derrane Lady. Having already covered 30 mares this season, he will be presented at the Irish Draught Stallion Inspections in Spring 2022 and Ann hopes he will return to the RDS under saddle in the future.
The competition in Ring 2 got underway with two strong classes of Irish Draught foals. The filly foal class was won by Sophie Marks’s Lilys High Hopes, a chesnut by Dunsandle Diamond out of Barbervilla Lily who is by Gortfree Hero. A large class of colt foals was won by Dominick Cassidy’s Clonakilty Legacy by Clonakilty Hero, this colt subsequently also took the Foal Championship.
Next in Ring 2 came a class for traditionally bred mares which saw some beautiful quality stock presented. This class was sponsored by the Traditional Irish Horse Association and breeders of the top four mares in this class will also receive prize money. TIHA Treasurer Jim Cooke was on hand to present the red ribbon to Danielle Cusack’s Ballydurn Taylor, an eight-year-old mare by Spirit House out of Dernahatten Dusk, bred by James Teague.
The youngstock classes were very well filled, particularly the filly classes. Judges Eyleen Nugent and John Walsh chose both their Youngstock Champion and Reserve out of the three-year-old filly class. Champion was Eddie Murphy’s home-bred Inisfree Grey Maiden by Inisfree The Holy Grail. This filly was a previous winner of the All Ireland Yearling Irish Draught Championship in 2019. The reserve was another home-bred, Enda Hamill’s Gweebarra Realta by Millhollow The Real Mac Coy, who is a full sister to the Class 1 stallion Gweebarras Dreamtime Star.
Large classes of broodmares filled Ring 1 throughout the day. Judges Geraldine Berney and Michael Mannion chose Jimmy Heery’s 14-year-old Liskillen Princess as the Champion Mare of the Show. Liskillen Princess was bred by Martin Collins and is by Donovan, and she won the veteran mare class on the way to becoming Champion.
The Mare of the Future class was confined to three- and four-year-old mares and was won by Sean Hoare’s home-bred Moylough Gina, a three-year-old by Moylough Legacy.
Win for Bohan
The Premier Broodmare and Foal class was won by Padraig Bohan’s mare and foal combination of Gortfadda Heigh Ho by Heigh Ho Dubh and her filly foal by Inisfree The Iron Cross. The breeder of the winning mare, Kay Blackwell, also received a prize as did the owner of the sire of the winning foal, Eddie Murphy.
The popularity of the Irish Draught as a ridden and performance horse continues to grow and while the in-hand rings showcased the dams and performers of the future, the ridden rings saw good entries in working hunter and ridden show classes. Horse Sport Ireland sponsored the three working hunter classes and the ridden Irish Draught mares class which was won by Veronica Agnew’s Peters Pride, a nine-year-old mare by Castlegar Rebel who was bred by Tom Burke in Galway. Sean Barker’s Gortfree Lakeside Lad has been a prolific winner under saddle over the last few years and Punchestown proved no different as the nine-year-old stallion won both the ridden and working hunter class for older horses with Brian Murphy on board, and was subsequently crowned Supreme Ridden Champion of the Show.
The Supreme In-Hand Champion of the show was Eddie Murphy’s Innisfree Grey Maiden and reserve was Moylough Gina.
The IDHBA would like to thank all their sponsors, volunteers, competitors and judges for helping to make the 2021 National Show a success.