FOR many, the highlight of the 2026 Gallagher Dublin Horse Show will be the crowning of the TopSpec supreme hunter champion in the Laya Arena next Saturday morning. Only a chosen few will get to gallop on the hallowed turf however with most of the action taking place earlier in the week in Ring 2.

The lightweights will first come under scrutiny on Thursday morning when Britain’s Zara Owen and Patrick Lobb start judging the four-year-old geldings at 8am. Last year’s weight champion, the Legaland Darco bay Bannside Dancer, came from the six-year-old and upwards geldings’ class, in which he is again entered but, this time, in the ownership of his rider, Jamie Smyth.

The reserve was Nicola Perrin’s Radolin home-bred Ballarin Rosalin who won her four and five-year-old mares’ class, the hunter mares’ championship and the four-year-old title. While the champion juvenile Ground Control is now in England, Raymound Dowdall has held on to the reserve champion mare Foxcovert Inthedark. This eight-year-old Rebel Mountain grey is again being targeted at the older mares’ class which she won last August under Dowdall’s daughter Linzi Sullivan,

The middleweights and heavyweights will be judged on Friday morning. Britain’s Beanie Sturgis and Josephine Jefferson will assess those forward in the middleweight classes where the reigning champion, Mr Venture Elm, a 2020 Newmarket Venture bay, will represent owner Hilary Gibson and rider Jamie Smyth in the six-year-old and upwards class. Also listed here, directly under Mr Venture Elm in fact, is the 2025 reserve weight champion, the seven year-old Glynnwood Cornet gelding Tul Na Rí who remains the ride of Gwen Scott but is another since purchased by Debbie Harrod.

In the absence of the 2025 supreme hunter champion, Raglan Road, the heavyweight title will also be up for grabs. Here, Britain’s Hayden Hankey and Ann Bassett have just two classes to judge, starting with the four-year-olds.

There were only three entries for the equivalent class at Balmoral but the first and second that day, Christine Sterling Berry’s home-bred Lynara Lord Steele (by Centre Stage) and Grace Maxwell Murphy’s Gleann Rua Bridgerton (by Castlegar Cooloough) are set to oppose one another here.

In the six-year-old and upwards class, in which there are many pure Irish Draughts entered, Debbie Harrod’s name pops up again as the owner of the Brian Murphy-owned and produced seven-year-old Arkan gelding BBK Flynn. The bay won the heavyweight championship at Balmoral back in May and proved himself bang on form for next week’s challenge when crowned champion hunter at Tatttersalls on Sunday.