IT was a case of round up the usual suspects at The Meadows last Saturday for the first qualifying round of the Horse Finder Star of the Future performance horse championship and the Pegus Horse Feed performance Irish Draught championship at this year’s Balmoral Show (May 13th to 16th).

Having undertaken any task she was requested to do over the seven weeks of the flexi eventing series at The Meadows, one might have thought that Catherine Abbott would have given the McCusker family’s Lurgan venue a miss last Saturday. However, she agreed to judge the performance horse qualifier and, after weeks of wind and rain, she did so on the best day of the spring to date.

“There were some really nice horses who stood out on conformation, movement, turnout and on being properly schooled,” commented Abbott, who used a wide range of marks when assessing the animals forward for their ‘potential to become top-class performance horses’. “These horses really caught the eye on entering the ring and more or less placed themselves.”

One-two

On Saturday, the Co Wicklow-based Cooley Farm team paid their third visit of the year to The Meadows, where stable jockey Amanda Goldsbury finished first and second in the five-year-old qualifier on the recently-purchased Irish Sport Horse mare Are You With Me (96 marks) and the home-bred ISH gelding Cooley Undeclared (93), who is by Colandro out of a Sekio mare.

“I only bought the mare about a week ago from Carol Coad, whose daughters did bits and pieces of everything with her last year,” said Cooley’s Richard Sheane. “This pair, and the other horse we brought up on Saturday for the six and seven-year-old class, will be aimed at the final - if not sold of course - but we will do a bit of show jumping with them before then. We also have others for the Balmoral jumping qualifiers.”

Are You With Me, who is by Valent, was bred at Hartwell Stud by Jonathan McCann out of the Bonnie Prince mare Dans Irish Lamia.

Also qualifying from this class of five-year-olds, and representing last year’s championship-winning owner Ella Boyle and rider Ben Rainey, was the traditionally-bred ISH gelding Monbeg Comet (Abbeyfield Comet - Laughton’s Clover Lily, by Nigrasine), whose four jumping penalties didn’t affect his finishing position of third (83).

Bred in Co Wexford by Jim Kavanagh, Monbeg Comet was consigned by Tomás Doyle to the 2024 Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale, where he was knocked down to Boyle and her mother Mandy for €21,000. The bay had previous experience of The Meadows having competed successfully in the flexi eventing series.

Abbott’s total scores here dropped to as low as 11 while three of the 32 starters failed to finish, two being eliminated while one retired on the course.

Six and seven-year-olds

Goldsbury had just the one ride, Cooley Economics, in the six and seven-year-old qualifier where she and the 2020 ISH gelding by Mylord Carthago finished third (92) to book their spot in the Balmoral final. The chesnut, who was bred in Co Kilkenny by Michael and Sinead Brennan, has 20 Show Jumping Ireland points to his credit, the majority earned under his former partner, Linda Moloney.

https://foto.ifj.ie/fotoweb/archives/5006-Irish-Horse-World/Irish%20Horse%20World/2020/KR1_2023.jpg.info#c=%2Ffotoweb%2Farchives%2F5006-Irish-Horse-World%2F%3Fq%3Dciara%2520o%27connor

Ciara O’Connor riding Ashwood Rio, winners of the six and seven year-old Star of the future class at The Meadows \ Tori O'Connor Photography

As she didn’t top the final leaderboard herself, the New Zealand international event rider would have been delighted to see that the win went to Ciara O’Connor on board her aunt Sharon’s seven-year-old ISH gelding Ashwood Rio (Dignified van het Zorgvliet - Pikeur, by Ramiro B).

There were three major wins on the partnership’s CV last year - in the Junior/Young Rider event horse class at the Dublin Horse Show, in the 19-runner CCI1*Intro at Ballindenisk in April and in the 50-strong CCI2*-L class at the Fell family’s Watergrasshill venue in September. O’Connor works all hours she can at Cooley Farm and is set to join the Glenealy yard once she sits her Leaving Certificate.

Christine O’Donnell, who finished sixth in the five-year-old class on Coolboy BGK (82), qualified in second here with the ISH gelding BGK Third Time Lucky (94). She also finished fourth on Killeenhousestud BGK (86), a seven-year-old ISH gelding by Future Trend who had five starts last year under Eventing Ireland rules and will be aimed at another qualifier.

The bay BGK Third Time Lucky, who had two EI100 outings during 2025 in the hands of O’Donnell, picked up 14 SJI points over the past two years under the same rider and both of her sisters, Sarah and Grace. The six-year-old son of Vittorio was bred in Co Wexford by M J Kavanagh out of the Puissance mare AFS Juno, a half-sister to the OBOS Quality 004 gelding Luckaun Quality (CCI5*-L) among others.

“We purchased him privately as a foal from his breeder and plan to hold on to him,” said O’Donnell. “He has done plenty of show jumping, including at last year’s Breeders’ Classic, and I might well do one or two of the Balmoral jumping qualifiers with him as well. It would be nice to compete in both disciplines at the show. He will also be going eventing, as I’d ideally like to aim him at the six-year-old class at Le Lion.”

The lowest score awarded in this class was 29, while one of the 23 starters failed to finish.