Susan Finnerty

MATCHING judges to classes was one of the main talking points at the Dublin ringside, however it was clear that Saturday morning’s broodmare and foal judges were in their element.

Lady Warren, deputising for her husband John Warren, who was in Australia, was teamed up with bloodstock agent and Ledbury MFH David Redvers and the pair’s showring experience was evident.

One practical step they made was having the early morning line-up face the Anglesea Stand to avoid the shade over on the stallion boxes side of Ring 1.

“We moved the line-up there because it is easier to see the horses and their muscle definition when the sunlight is on them,” Lady Warren explained about the switch. Hankalaine, the reigning Coote Cup champion, still dazzled Dublin.

“She walked into the ring and immediately caught David’s and my eye the way she moved. She had great quality, wonderful length of rein and you just wanted to sit on her. She had tremendous presence, there are some you keep noticing no matter where they are in the ring and she was one of them,” said Redver’s co-judge about John and Julia Crosbie’s stinted class winner.

Standing second at the end of a ‘character building week’ for owner Daphne Tierney was her Bloomfield Abbey, by Master Imp out of her good mare Bloomfield Rebekah. John Roche’s Master Imp granddaughter and former Limerick Lady champion Assagart Mistress, took third in this exceptionally strong class.

MIDDLE HEAVYWEIGHT

While The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship winners Aidensfield Flamenco and her colt foal were noticeable absentees from the following day, the classes got off to a good start when John & Michelle Roche’s Assagart Saviour, a 13-year-old by Flagmount King, won the middle/heavyweight class for a third time.

Her stable companion, Assagart Sapphire, also by the same Irish Draught sire, stood second for a Roche one-two and in third was another home-bred in Patrick Wafer’s Parkmore Evita, by Ghareeb with a damline going back to Clover Hill and Sky Boy.

The following lightweight mare class was equally strong and resulted in a win for Kieran Fahey’s Madam Noir, by Kings Master.

His eight-year-old brown mare, bred by Kilkenny breeder Carmelita Murphy, coincidentally produced Dermot Gordon’s Queen B, the All Ireland two-year-old filly champion at Kildysart the previous Saturday.

Standing second was Stephen Culliney’s broodmare champion at that West Clare show, Kilkeany Mystic, another of Ghareeb’s broodmare daughters and third was Ronnie McCombe’s My Lisnagade, by Emperor Augustus, originally pulled in first. The Wafer brothers team of Maurice and Seamus have dominated the thoroughbred-sired foal class here and this time it was the turn of their uncle Patrick whose much-admired filly Parkmore La-Vie out of their lightweight class prizewinner Parkmore Evita, won both this and the open filly class.

“We thought the filly foal winner was outstanding, that was an easy decision. She’s a top-class foal in any discipline,” remarked the judges about the Robin De La Maison filly, who is being retained by her Carnew breeder and is a half-sister to the 1.50m show jumper Parkmore Lux.

Kilkeany Mystic’s latest foal, a Kings Master filly led by his cousin, GMIT student Christopher Hanrahan, once again delivered a Dublin rosette for her owner when she took the blue ribbon. Mark Folan’s memorable Dublin debut continued when his OBOS Quality filly was third.

COLT FOAL

John Roche may not have qualified this year for The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship but had another good Coote Cup day when his Assagart Palace won the colt foal division.

The winner is by his favourite sire Coroner out of the Bonnie Prince mare Assagart Jewel.

Taking second and third were two stallion owners with foals by their own ‘in-house’ stallion in Jay Bowe’s Dilshaan and James O’Donovan’s Craigsteel colts. Six mares from the morning classes, sponsored by Tiernan Gill’s Brooklands Bedding, lined out for the championship and there was no surprise when Hankalaine was called forward as the Coote Cup champion for the second successive year. An equally delighted Kieran Fahey stood reserve with his Madam Noir to score a good result for West Cork exhibitors who had a quiet Horse Show Week results-wise. Scanned in foal once again to Hermes De Reve, Hankalaine is by the deceased German thoroughbred Hankalo, out of a damline stretching back to Slyguff Joker, Norson and Highland Flight.