DAVID Kirkpatrick travelled down to the Fagan family’s Mullingar Equestrian Centre on Sunday to judge the third qualifier for the Pegus Horse Feed performance Irish Draught championship at Balmoral Show (May 13th to 16th).

There were contrasting results to both classes, with a dead-heat more or less in the six-year-old and upwards section, while Craughwell’s Maria McNamara had four marks in hand over her nearest rival when winning the four and five-year-old division with her father Tom’s Shanbally Nightcap (Cappa Aristocrat - Moyglass Blackie, by Coille Mor Hill).

The 2021 gelding was bred in Co Galway by James Dunning, from whom the McNamaras purchased the grey as an untouched three-year-old. He appeared under saddle last year when he qualified for the performance ID championships at Balmoral and Dublin. He failed to reach the placings at both venues, but did finish third in his four-year-old working hunter class at the Ballsbridge showgrounds.

Shanbally Nightcap will contest the Draught section of the Eventing Ireland Western Region Bert Properties eventing starter series final at the Galway Equestrian Centre on Easter Monday, April 6th. He will then head up to Balmoral and, after that, will be aimed once again at the Dublin performance ID qualifiers.

Duncan McFadyen, who had been up at Gransha the previous day, qualified in second with the four-year-old Gortfree Curious George gelding Marmaduke (134 marks), ahead of George Russell with the similarly-aged Gortfree Hero gelding Gortfree Allstar (130). The fourth ticket went to the fifth-placed combination of Edel Whyte and the 2022 Moylough Legacy mare Ballywire Legacy (115).

Two combinations topped Kirkpatrick’s scores in the older horses’ class on 132 apiece, Christopher Connell with the nine-year-old gelding Windy Carrick Clover (Carrickcottage Star - Windtown Rose, by Fintan Himself) and Chloe Hester with the similarly-aged mare Crusheens Gentle Breeze (Inisfree The Holy Grail - Crusheen Breeze, by Coolcronan Wood). As the Eileen Smullen-bred Windy Carrick Clover had posted the higher jumping score (93 to 87), he claimed the honours.

Lily Mai Walsh qualified in third with the six-year-old Bannvalley Silver Dancer mare Chapel Hill Rose (126), with Ben Johnson claiming the fourth ticket on board the eight-year-old mare Platinum Polly (119), who is the only animal listed on the Irish Horse Register by Gortfree Bounce.