A DAY short of his fourth birthday, the Irish Draught gelding Tulcon Hero was crowned Creightons supreme hunter champion at the 156th Balmoral Show.

Ridden by Craughwell’s William McMahon for his wife Grace Maxwell Murphy, the Gortfee Hero grey ended up in the Main Arena last Thursday week by winning the four-year-old heavyweight class in Horse Ring 1 as the show opened the previous day. He swopped places at the top of the first line-up with the Sarah Brashaw-owned and ridden Centre Stage gelding Shanaghan Benu.

In the Main Arena, Tulcon Hero first won the heavyweight title with the older class winner, the six-year-old Trumps Warrior gelding Rowgis Kieran, ridden for Natalie Irwin by Julie Donaghy Simpson, standing reserve. McMahon and the grey, who was bred in Co Leitrim by Paddy Kilrane out of the Gurraun Zidane mare, next returned for the four-year-old championship.

Here, they finished reserve to the lightweight champion Carravilla Enough Said, a dark bay son of Chillout who was ridden by Brian Murphy for Co Cork’s Regina Daly, a staunch Balmoral supporter. This pair were joined for the final decider by Rowgis Kieran, the lightweight reserve, Debbie Harrod’s Bannside Dancer, and the middleweight champion and reserve, Hilary Gibson’s Mr Venture Elm and Kieran O’Gorman’s Munthers King.

It was the final show by those forward, the gallop, which saw the judges, Britain’s Louise Daly and Ireland’s Paul Kinane, come down in favour of Tulcon Hero as their supreme champion with Carravilla Enough Said standing reserve.

“I told William not to take the handbrake off until the final gallop and that’s just what he did,” said Maxwell Murphy.

“I saw him start to build the horse’s speed up in the far corner so that he had dropped down and was in full stretch when he went by the judges.”

Rider and owner were agreed that hunting the grey with the Galway Blazers had been the makings of their champion. “We hunt all our horses and yes, 100% hunting helped him,” said McMahon. “It gets them going nice and forward.”

Tulcon Hero, who had won on his previous two outings, was one of a number of horses purchased by McMahon and Maxwell Murphy in 2022 from John Igoe who had bought the 2025 Balmoral champion as a foal in Cavan. “They were bought to sell on as hunters but I picked this fellow out as a show horse from the start and am delighted that he won this championship so early in his career,” said the owner.

The Craughwell couple also struck in the four and five-year-old small hunter class with the home-bred Moylough Legacy gelding Gleann Rua Legacy. When it came to the championship in the Main Arena on Wednesday, it was the second in this class, Claudie The Dandy, who stood reserve to the vastly experienced Tiger Eye who was ridden for Orla Cusack by Jodie Moran.

Ridden and produced by Lesley Jones, the four-year-old Centre Stage mare Claudie The Dandy returned to the Main Arena on Thursday where she won the Pearl Creighton trophy for the champion home-bred exhibit for her owner Yvonne Pearson.