Margie McLoone

BANBRIDGE exhibitor John Donaghy once again landed the prestigious RDS supreme youngstock championship with a two-year-old gelding, this time with the thoroughbred Northern Image who was shown by Shirley Hurst.

Caesars Palace won the much sought after title for Donaghy in 2011 after which he was sold to Jill Day. That Emperor Augustus gelding has carried Robert Walker to some notable successes in the show ring but chances are that Northern Image’s future lies on the racetrack.

It’s a clever ploy exhibiting a two-year-old as there are nearly always far more yearlings and three-year-olds and a good two-year-old will stand out, particularly as this age group usually comes up first before the judges at Dublin.

And Donaghy had a fair idea that he had a special horse on his hands as the Stowaway bay had finished second in the geldings’ section of the inaugural yearling show held in conjunction with last year’s November National Hunt Sale at Tattersalls Ireland.

This year’s Dublin judges were Spain’s Luis Alvarez Cervera, who competed at Olympic level in both show jumping and eventing, and Britain’s Charlie Gordon-Watson, a leading buyer of bloodstock worldwide.

They had their own idea of how they would like to see the horses shown in the first class for two-year-old colts and geldings in Ring 1 on Thursday morning, asking handlers to trot them around the stand end of the ring and not simply in a straight line.

Dessie Gibson’s Golden Master gelding Ducketts Grove, who had been crowned all-Ireland champion on the Bank Holiday Monday at Tinahely, topped the first line-up with Martin Burke’s Porsch colt Baile Beag in second ahead of Northern Image.

However, the judges gave an early indication that they were prepared to change things around on closer inspection and, having been sent out again for the second go-around, the thoroughbred was beckoned forward to claim the red ribbon. James McWeeney’s Tattygare Fantastic Mr Fox, another by Porsch, was moved up from fourth to place second ahead of Ducketts Grove.

Traditional order was restored for the fillies’ class which was won by Rebecca Monahan’s much-admired Notalot, reserve champion filly here last year and a winner earlier in the season at Balmoral. She had been beaten however in the all-Ireland two-year-old fillies’ championship at Kildysart by Margaret Jeffares’s Ballykelly Empress who didn’t feature last week.

Notalot, a bay by Lancelot who was bred by James Wallace out of a Cavalier Royale mare, had to settle for reserve in the two-year-old championship to Northern Image, but her delighted Co Clare owner was to leave the RDS once again with sashes and cups galore.

By the time the medium/heavyweight geldings came before the judges, Alvarez Cervera had been fitted out with a bowler but he and Gordon-Watson continued to put their own mark on proceedings. Here, their winner was George Chapman’s Island George who had originally stood fourth.

Chapman purchased the Emperor Augustus bay from his neighbour Maeve Kavanagh who bred him out of her Mourne Mountain Star mare Island Gentle Maid.

Daphne Tierney’s Bloomfield Spotlight also moved up from fourth to win the lightweight class in the hands of Gary Guyatt. This Power Blade gelding, who is broken and riding, won the All-Ireland two-year-old championship at Tinahely last year but didn’t travel on to Dublin. He was bred by Hazel Deacon out of the Paris Lights mare Paris Clover.

Fillies

A delighted Valerie McCallister landed the fillies’ class with the eye-catching Sugar Bella who always topped the line-up. The grey by Chekov PZK, who is a half-sister to the recently exported top eventing mare Sugar Brown Babe, has now returned to her breeder Miriam Cunning who sadly hasn’t a foal to pass on to the Lisburn exhibitor this year.

McCallister had further reason to celebrate when Sugar Bella was placed reserve to the three-year-old champion, Bloomfield Spotlight.

The yearlings were judged on Friday morning and first up the Hurst Show Team won the geldings’ class with their home-bred Tattygare Something Special. The brown Porsch gelding, who won the all-Ireland at Carnew last month, is a full-brother to Tattygare Good To Go, the RDS supreme youngstock champion of 2013 and champion hunter mare last week.

YEARLINGS

There was a bit of a surprise however when it came to the yearling championship, with the filly Caltra Star claiming the honours. The judges admitted they missed her first time around in her class but had no hesitation in placing her first and then awarding her the title.

The filly was shown by veterinary student Danielle Cusack for Co Mayo exhibitor Patrick Wall who said he purchased the bay in a bar at the show last year. Caltra Star, who has enjoyed a very successful season in the show ring, is from the second crop of the Balou du Rouet stallion Sligo Candy Boy out of Seamus Cawley’s Puissance mare Caltra Dark Beauty.

The judges didn’t take long in deciding on their champion filly, with Notalot making that important step forward from last year while Caltra Star took the reserve sash.

A lot of highly-regarded judges had selected Northern Image as champion as soon as he put a foot in the ring on Thursday and Donaghy was obviously confident having encouraged the gelding’s breeder, Pat Collins, to travel down to Dublin. This time the handlers had to do a lot of walking before a decision was announced but it wasn’t too much of a surprise to onlookers when Northern Image was declared winner of the Laidlaw cup while the ever professional Notalot was a worthy reserve.

Northern Image was bred by Collins out of the French-bred Fijar Tango mare Fitanga who has so far produced four winners on the track including the filly Tangaspeed (by Vertical Speed) who won four races on the flat in her native France and the Jimble full-brothers Jim Tango and Tango Jim who are both winners over jumps in Ireland.

At Tattersalls last November, Northern Image (which is not a registered name) was knocked down for €42,000 to Harold Kirk. However, he doesn’t appear to have moved far from home and it will be interesting to see where he goes next. John Donaghy was shrewd to spot the gelding’s potential at this stage of his career and one knows that he got considerable pleasure out of winning with the horse at Dublin.

The supreme champion wasn’t eligible for the Pembroke trophy which was won by Seamus Lehane’s Ghareeb gelding Ballard Big Bang who had finished third in his lightweight class to the three-year-old champion Bloomfield Spotlight. Lehane bred the bay out of his prolific Abdullah mare Ballard Queen.