Susan Finnerty

IT was an August Bank Holiday weekend bonanza of All Ireland horse finals, with no less than four held over three days at Kildysart, Bonniconlon and Tinahely.

The West Clare show hosted two championships, which were also part of Horse Sport Ireland’s national showing series and, despite their proximity to horse show week, both filly finals attracted good numbers of quality entries.

The All Ireland yearling finals have undergone somewhat of a nationwide tour in recent years with the colt/gelding championship moving this year from Carnew to Castlewellan, (won last month by Seamus Lehane’s Colin Diamond gelding, Ballard Wizard), while the filly final, traditionally held in Scarriff in September, moved across to the Banner county.

Judges Ronnie Bailey and Liam Cotter had John Keane and Valerie Lyons’s JVK Lady Marmalade in top place in their original line-up last Saturday, with Sheelagh Barry’s home-bred Darwin initially second, and then reversed this pair in their final order.

“We’ve been trying for nearly 30 years to win one!” said Barry’s delighted father Kevin, who had come closest to winning an All Ireland youngstock final in 2006 with Harry, the yearling gelding being reserve at Ennis that year.

Their champion is by Harlequin Du Carel, out of the Cruising-Bahrain mare Mythical Cruise, who also produced the Inch family’s 2011 All Ireland broodmare champion at Ennis, Mythical Ruby, another by Colin Diamond.

“We named her Darwin after the storm that night, the stable nearly blew down while the mare was foaling,” said Kevin, explaining the champion’s name. JVK Lady Marmalade, another good-moving chesnut filly, has been a consistent winner this summer for her owners and is by the Irish Sport Horse sire Brilliant Lad, a combination of the Swedish sire Lemon, King Of Diamonds and National Hunt sire Lucifer, out of a Primo Pageant dam.

Taking third place was John Cusack’s Clonaslee Loughehoe Diamond, by Loughehoe Guy, who also won the best-turned out award for the Laois family.

“The yearling winner was very well developed, with quality, depth of body and presence. We loved her clean, flat bone and lovely, even rhythm when she moved,” said Cotter, commenting on their champion from the dozen entries.

The same judges had four more to finalists forward in the following final when they selected Dermot Gordon’s Queen B as their champion from the 16 hopefuls.

The Munther two-year-old was shown by his father, Anthony who had won here in 2009 with Irish Light, who went on to win both Dublin and the Limerick Lady final that same year.

Champion already this year at Westport and Galway County, the winner was bred by Kieran Fahey and is out of his Kings Master-Ricardo Z mare, Madam Noir.

Coincidentally, Croker Cup hopeful Munther is owned by Kieran O’Gorman, who also took third place in this final with his home-bred Brookfield Royale. All Ireland champion at Scariff last year, she is the last Lux Z daughter of his Kildysart Royale, once owned by local man Tom Casey.

Mayo owners matched the Clare one-two in the opening final when Caltra Star slotted into second place for PJ Wall, from Charlestown. By the well-represented sire, Sligo Candy Boy, who had no less than four fillies in Saturday’s finals, she won the yearling championship at Dublin last year before placing third in the All Ireland final at Scariff to Brookfield Royale.

Both judges were pleased with the standard of this year’s finalists, with Cotter saying: “She was a lovely stamp of a filly with a great shoulder and topline and was light off the ground.”

Banner County exhibitors kept entries up and Pat Fleming and Beverly Morgan had some good classes of youngstock to judge.

They chose Newmarket Joy, shown for owner Dan O’Connor by Brian Daly who stands the champion’s sire Newmarket Venture at the family’s Scarteen Stud. Rebecca Monahan’s Notalot, who made history by being the first filly to win the All Ireland three-year-old final at Bannow and Rathangan last month, was widely tipped by the ringside pundits as a live contender for this lucrative championship after winning her class.

Instead the nod went to Anthony McNamara’s Lancelot gelding who had stood second to Newmarket Joy in their three-year-old gelding class.

Her breeder and biggest follower Margaret Walsh will have been delighted to hear that Stephen Culliney won the broodmare championship with Kilkeany Mystic.

Bred in Cahir, she qualified for Scariff as a yearling, where Culliney spotted the Ghareeb bay and went on to place third in the Kildysart final for her Ennistymon owner the following year.

Timmy Wilson then opted for her Kings Master filly as his foal champion to complete the Culliney double. Sheelagh Barry, a Mary Immaculate College student who plans to become a national school teacher, completed her unforgettable day by taking the reserve foal title with her OBOS Quality-Cougar colt.