LEGENDARY coach Yogi Briesner did not have an easy task assessing the smart group of three-year-old event horses brought before him on Wednesday in the three year-old Potential Event Horse class at the RDS, but he was in absolutely no doubt when choosing his winner in Robert Hatton’s home-bred Livingston.

Describing him as “outstanding and one of the few to cover the ground in canter and with the right amount of activity”, Briesner placed the Thomas Quigley-handled grey a full four marks ahead of the field.

A son of Livello, the gelding had been in contention from the outset and, having filled equal third spot after the morning’s presentation phase, he was promoted after a calm and fluent display of jumping.

“It’s beginner’s luck!” jested the Co Carlow-based breeder. “This is my first entrant at the RDS and I’m delighted. We knew he was a high-quality horse, and it was on Thomas’ advice I decided to enter him in the qualifier. Thomas is a straight talker and will say whether your horse is good enough or not. In addition he’s very professional and with great attention to detail.”

A retired farmer, Hatton breeds from four sport horse mares at his home in Bagenalstown and is a firm believer in quality over quantity. His winner is the second foal out of the well-related jumping mare Chatterbox Z (1.30m), by Chellano, who Hatton bought from her breeder Carmel Ryan.

Sporting a pedigree full of blacktype, Chatterbox Z is a sibling to numerous international horses including Compelling Z (1.60m) and Creme de la Creme Z (1.55m). “We think he’s a really nice youngster for the future, and has already been selected for the Go For Gold sale in November.”

With a generous prize fund - this year supported by HSI and DAFM - the lucrative winner’s pot of €5,000 and monetary rewards for all qualifiers, ensures this is always a highly competitive class. Seventeen starters (10 geldings, 7 fillies) from the six regional qualifiers came forward on Wednesday morning, where they were assessed on the flat by international event coach Yogi Briesner.

A regular at the RDS, Briesner noted how the standard had improved over the years, and was led to comment: “It was an extremely strong class, which was reflected in the small spread of marks. On the whole, they were all very correct and of a real stamp, which is a credit to their producers. Across the board, they were well put together and stood well over the ground. The winner may not have been the most flashy, but he carried himself with a great rhythm - he was almost a jumper.”

Attractive

Four marks adrift in second place, but gaining the next best jumping mark, was Lauren Painter’s attractive Kilcorig Gotcha Talkin by Tyson. A qualifier from Mullingar, the bay is the first progeny of Gotcha Nema by Casall La Silla and was sourced from breeder Catherine Jackson earlier in the year. “You dream of days like this,” remarked Co Wicklow-based Painter. “He has amazing paces and a good brain and this class was always the target. The plan now is to produce him under saddle as a four-year-old.”

Each starter carried forward a mark out of 50 based on the conformation and paces in walk and trot. There were a further 100 marks up for grabs in the evening session, which as usual was staged in the cage in the international warm up sand arena. These marks were divided into sectors for jumping technique, canter, reflexes, standard of training and potential and, although flexible at times, horses had six opportunities to impress.

Overall, the standard of entrants since the class’s inception has notably improved and has certainly become more uniform. All were beautifully-presented and one to stand out in the morning session was JJ Bowe’s Highwayman.

The son of Chacoa headed the group, but with marks tightly clustered at the business-end, he slipped down the order in the evening session. In contrast, John Bannon’s Clarecastle Spirit, by Alicante, was promoted to third. One of the early ones to jump, the Barry Lyons-bred gelding improved at each attempt and, being out of Cougar Belle, by Cougar, going back to Able Albert, is another with a Go For Gold engagement in November.

As the highest-placed filly, fourth prize fell to Louise Flynn’s home-bred filly Greannanstown Non Negotiable, by I’mnotafraid Fortuna. Very good to jump, the grey is out of Greannanstown Budapest Surprise (OBOS Quality) and, beautifully related, hails from the direct maternal family of the Kim Severson ridden, American-based event horse Cooley Corraghy Diamond (CCI3*).

Commiserations are due to Stephanie Moore, whose highly-rated gelding by Zambia was kicked before the final phase and therefore unable to present.