WHILE the 2021 Balmoral Show was unlike any other, much remained the same on the horse front especially in the Creightons hunter section where, as in May 2019 when the show was last staged, Jane Bradbury landed the supreme championship on a heavyweight bay gelding owned by Daphne Tierney.

This time the formidable Co Wicklow combination claimed the title with the four-year-old Bloomfield Distinction who Tierney purchased as a foal.

By the hugely popular, but sadly deceased Oldenburg stallion OBOS Quality 004, Bloomfield Distinction was bred in Co Tipperary by Jim Seymour out of the Glidawn Diamond mare Glidawn Delight.

Ringside

Among those ringside was Lorraine Homer who produced the gelding on the show scene in Britain this summer when Bradbury was out of action with a broken collarbone.

Disappointingly, Homer’s daughter Alice, who successfully shared the ride on the Tierney horses with the yard’s headgirl, Olivia Minihane, was unable to travel over to Balmoral to support them, as she has just started studying at Bristol University.

While Bradbury was confined to her feet, showing in Ireland resumed at a few select venues during the summer and one rider who enjoyed a lot of success during this period was Co Kildare’s Nicola Perrin.

In the Main Arena at Balmoral last Thursday week, it was the Perrin-partnered medium weight champion, Ballarin Fionn, who stood reserve champion four-year-old and reserve supreme to Bloomfield Distinction. Roisin Drury’s grey Mountain Diamond gelding was bred in Co Galway by Ronan Kelly out of Parkroe Diamond (by All The Diamonds).

Another Co Kildare rider to land a hunter championship was Claire Gilna who, on board Kieran Ryan’s seven-year-old Castleforbes Lord Lancer mare Symphony, added the Balmoral lightweight title to that of Connolly’s Red Mills hunter champion of champions which the combination won at Killossery Lodge Stud in August.