GORTFREE Hero’s good weekend continued when his stallion son Gortfree Lakeside Lad, also owned by Sean Barker, won the open working hunter and supreme ridden champion at the IDHS(GB) annual show at Arena UK.

Ridden there by his usual jockeys, Brian Murphy and his cousin Linda, who had won the Irish Draught performance champion at Dublin with him, the five-year-old received another ‘Hero’s’ welcome home reception in Tourmakeady.

The supreme champion also had a Western connection as Lord Greystoke, owned by the Susca family, was sourced from the Hoare family in Moylough.

Pat had spotted the Welcome Emperor colt foal when judging at Virginia Show and bought him from his breeder Jimmy Heery. Stanley Grange Stud’s Jerome Harforth and David Dixon were in Galway last autumn on a horse-shopping trip when they saw the rising three-year-old and brought him back to Yorkshire, where David broke him in this springtime before selling him on.