AOIFE Keogh, a member of Copperfield, was crowned leading rider at last Sunday’s very successful AIRC North East Region Festival at Killossery Lodge Stud.

Keogh won both the performance hunter supreme championship and the showing supreme championship on her 2019 Irish Draught gelding Caralackey Boy (Grandpas Diamond - Gabbys Pet, by Oh Carol’s Pet), who she purchased as a three-year-old.

Having spent the previous few weeks in his role as farm and maintenance manager preparing the grounds at Tattersalls Ireland for the sales company’s July Show, Cormac O’Rourke relaxed by spending last Sunday judging the performance hunters at Killossery.

He found his overall and breed champion in the Irish Draught class while his choice for reserve breed champion was the Connemara class winner Shanbo Myles (Shanbo Jimmy - Morning Mist Star, by Monaghanstown Fionn), a 10-year-old gelding ridden for the Castle Hill club by Moya Teeling.

Howth chairperson Barbara Mackey won the lower height open performance hunter championship on her six-year-old gelding Mischief. Mackey and the dun won both the 50cm/60cm and the 70cm classes, in the former beating the reserve combination of Fingal’s Mandy McLeod with another dun, her Connemara mare Sruthan Roxanne, a 10-year-old daughter of Orchard Celtic Heaven.

In the larger height open championship, the honours went to the 90cm class winner, Enniskerry’s Alison Vines riding the 14-year-old ISH gelding Baile Beag (Porsch - Ladies Man, by Ginger’s Son). Kilronan’s Claire Solon stood reserve with her 1m class winner, the ISH gelding Harlequin du Clover, a 10-year-old chesnut by Harlequin du Carel.

O’Rourke’s three final tasks were to select his Higginstown House best turned-out award winner, which was Castledermot’s Amy McDonald riding Starlight Shadow; his best horse condition winner which was Headfort’s Mongorry Ficara (Marie Helene Finegan), and his Milltown Stables supreme champion which was Caralackey Bay with Sruthan Roxanne standing reserve.

Claire Solan and Harlequin du Clover won the 1m class and stood reserve champion at the AIRC North East Region Festival held at Killossery Lodge Stud \ McNicholas Media

Dancingintherain

The judges for Sunday’s showing section were Philippa Scott (who had also been on duty over the previous weekend at Tatts) and Chris Connell (ride) - both of whom were officiating at the show for the first time. To start, they judged the hunter classes and found their champion, the ISH mare Foxcovert Dancingintherain, in the lightweight class. This eight-year-old is ridden by Boyneside’s Linzi Sullivan for her father Raymound Dowdall, who bred the grey out of his Crosstown Dancer mare Carry On Dancing.

On Thursday just gone, Sullivan and Foxcovert Dancingintherain were competing in the older lightweight mares’ class at Dublin, which they won 12 months ago en route to standing reserve mare champion in the Main Arena (now Laya Arena). The pair are scheduled to start in tomorrow’s (Sunday) older lightweight working hunter class having qualified at Scarteen.

Standing reserve before they headed to Dublin for yesterday’s older middleweight class were Drynam’s Jill Brown and her well-known 10-year-old ID gelding A Heros Welcome (Gortfree Hero - Tawney Lady, by Cream Of Diamonds).

Sullivan also won the ladies’ astride class on Foxcovert Dancinginthedark, while the side saddle class (and section turn-out award) went the way of Drynam’s Laura Reynolds on Louise Kavanagh’s 13-year-old ID gelding Fred Showtime (Fintan Himself - Diamond Anne, by Sir Rivie). Earlier, riding Barryswell Ratchet, Reynolds had finished runner-up in the small hunter class to Kilrainy’s Nollaig Healy and the Dublin-bound nine-year-old ID gelding Flyhigh Ivy (Young Carrabawn - Ivy House Duchess, by Huntingfield Rebel).

Keogh and Caralackey Boy first came to the attention of Connell and Scott when winning their Irish Draught class, ahead of Headfort’s Marie Helene Finegan and Mongorry Ficara (Gortfree Lakeside Lad - Mongorry Saoirse, by Mongorry O’Murchui), a chesnut who ended the day as reserve breed champion and the show’s four-year-old champion.

When it came to the ARKequine supreme in the showing section, Keogh and Caralackey Boy (also winner of the best condition award) once again got the nod, ahead of Brown and A Heros Welcome.

‘King’ of dressage

In dressage, Edel King, a member of the Moyglare club in the West Leinster Region, won both the veteran horse and senior rider classes on her 21-year-old Connemara gelding Sheebas Boy (Monaghanstown Pat - Sheebas Dewdrop, by Kylemore Rocky).

Another rider to record a double was Drynam’s Stacy Forsyth who landed the RCN on the 10-year-old skewbald ISH gelding Texas Surf (Grange Merlin Surf - Texas Foxy, by Mr Texas) and the open walk/trot test on her home-bred ID mare Dunsandle Rebel (Dunsandle Diamond - Grey Dawn Rebel, by Creevagh Grey Rebel), a four-year-old making her debut.

The Castle Hill club also struck twice. Niamh Murphy won the RCP3 with the Oldenburg mare Daisy Duke, a 10-year-old daughter of Top Gear, and chairperson Lindsey Ilona Brady, a List 4 judge with Dressage Ireland, won the young horse class on board Yukon Orio (Vittorio - Premier Daisy Darco, by Darco). This four-year-old ISH gelding was bred by Sandra Hannigan, a member of the Cheval club whose Geraldine Gaul won the RCP2 riding the 13-year-old piebald gelding Shotgun George.

Ashbrook’s Mairead Dolan topped the scores in the open Preliminary class with Helena Fitzgerald McLoughlin’s nine-year-old chesnut home-bred ISH gelding Antuasal (Fintan Himself – Richmondlea Dara, by Mountain Pearl).

Killcarrick’s Chelsea Jay not only won the RCP1 on Moonlite Dalia, but also claimed the dressage section’s best horse condition award with her eight-year-old piebald mare. Killegar’s Jill Southern saw off two rivals in the RCE with the 18-year-old ISH mare Ardmount Rio (Vriend - Ardmount Abbey, by Ard Allez Cat). Cheval’s Sue Byrne finished second here with Billy Bonkers, winner of the section’s best turned-out award.

It was good to see so many clubs in the Region support the Festival, which was run by a very organised team headed up by Sarah Richardson who did so much behind the scenes and then in front of camera through interviews with judges and winning riders.