Susan Finnerty
THE great horseman Tommy Brennan was remembered at Gorey Show last Saturday by a new championship for traditional-bred horses, which was judged thoroughly by visting British judge John Chugg, who was teamed up with John Kennedy.
The pair opted for Margaret Jeffares’ homebred Ballykelly Empress, as the inaugural winner and completing the second part of a unique double for the Jeffares team, was Ballykelly Flashdance, led by her husband Des, in reserve. This was the same order as the earlier youngstock championship, again judged by the same combination, where entries were on the small side for a Wexford show.
Each of the Jeffares pair have good All Ireland form, with the Emperor Augustus-sired Empress taking the All Ireland two-year-old filly final at Kildysart, while Ballykelly Empress, by the Dublin Irish Draught champion Gortfree Hero, was reserve in the All Ireland colt foal final at Ballinasloe last autumn.
“She oozes quality,” remarked Chugg about their double champion, while Kennedy tipped the yearling as a future Dublin horse.
Johnston Brodie’s Kurumba made her show ring debut in style by winning the broodmare championship. The nine-year-old was bred in Cumbria, where she was spotted by his late wife Lesley and as a four-year-old, the Cruising-Touchdown mare placed third -in the Burghley young event horse final before embarking on her eventing career with Caroline Powell.
Another mare on a clean sweep was Danny Molloy’s Baltydaniel Silver Queen who was Patricia Nicholson and Aiden Jones’ champion choice in a well-supported Irish Draught section. The Fast Silver 11-year-old’s colt foal, by Huntingfield Heathcliff, also won his class. Taking the reserve tricolour was Fethard owner Joanne Doran’s three-year-old filly winner by another Huntingfield-prefix stallion, Huntingfield Ruler.
Jill Mangan’s Agherlow gelding Highcourt won the ridden Irish Draught class and both judges were pleased with the standard of Irish Draughts, whose purebred numbers have dwindled in recent years. “I’ve cut back on mares too, you should only breed from them if they’re very good,” said Nicholson.
Despite some initial confusion when Rosemary Connors was first called forward on Wendy Phipps’s Healy’s Enigma, it was another Gorey ridden hunter championship win for the owner-producer team of Daphne Tierney and Jane Bradbury. Their latest champion, the Amiro M-sired Balmoral winner Bloomfield Executive, completed a treble for the Bloomfield team following championship wins here for Bergerac and Tetrarch in the past two years. Incidentally, Phipps, who found her Bellews Mate four-year-old at the Goresbridge sales last autumn, won at the Horse of the Year Show with Zatopec, another name that appears on the historic Gorey cup as the middleweight gelding won here with George Chapman in 1979.
Linda Murphy’s Shirsheen Fun Size, by Grand Plaisir, won his working hunter class and was champion ahead of the cob working hunter winner Buddy, owned by Aoife Fitzpatrick. The ridden pony championship was won by Aoife O’Connor’s 143cms show hunter Valentine Dignity, ahead of Nesta Fitzgerald’s coloured winner Parcglass Splendid Rainbow. Rosie Fitzgerald won the in-hand championship with the homebred youngster Brandon Reepicheep, with Aoife O’Connor’s Connemara gelding Ballylea Castle Prince in reserve. Noreen O’Connor’s Trewolla Truffles took the working hunter pony reserve title, with the championship won by Maria O’Grady’s 153cms winner, Rosog Rusty.