THE first international class on the final day of the Gallagher Dublin Horse Show was the one-star young horse seven and eight-year-old class. The top 29 combinations from the two qualifying classes combined made up the start list, where it was an Irish clean sweep taking all top six places.

The class is run on a handicap basis where the seven-year-olds jump then the fences go up one hole for the eight-year-olds and what a thrilling jump-off the riders put on, with less than a second separating the top four.

Irish National Champion Niamh McEvoy, who is no stranger to the winners’ enclosure at the RDS, partnered with Keith Ennis’ Tyson-sired gelding Rosconnell Tango to a fantastic victory in a time of 39.89.

Taking out a stride

The eight stride distance going across the arena to the final line proved to be the difference as McEvoy was able to come down in seven strides. Rosconnell Tango has proven himself to be a very promising horse in his short career so far by coming fourth in the 1.30m championships in Balmoral this year with Niamh but also finishing sixth in the prestigious Breeders’ Classic in 2025 with Leah Stack.

Kian Dore, fresh off finishing third in the previous class the six-year-old final, this time partnered his father Carl Dore’s very consistent stallion Tyfoon Vd Donkhoeve into second place breaking the beams in 40.72.

Carl Dore told The Irish Field: “Tyfoon is so consistent and unbelievable. He has been in fantastic form this year winning the 1.40m Grand Prix at the Waterford/Tipperary show in July and won the first qualifier here on Wednesday. Kian has been riding him since he was five and we both have great hopes for his future.

“The more jumping Tyfoon does the happier he is; he will jump the Boomerang class at Millstreet this week and then go onto the Breeders’ Classic show before hopefully jumping the seven-year-old class at Lanaken.

“He is a fully approved stallion but we haven’t started to cover mares yet, we just want to concentrate on the jumping for the moment.”

Francis Derwin rode the leading eight-year-old in the class, Nolle, into third place to complete the podium. Owned by Wow Trading, the Chacfly Ps gelding looked very comfortable and at home in the big international arena when just edged into third place by 0.06 seconds in a time 40.78, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him compete in the Grand Prix or on a Friday team in the not so distant future.

The leading capped Irish Nations Cup rider Cian O’Connor was next in line when finishing fourth on Karlswood Partners’ seven-year-old Diamant de Semily gelding Karlswood.

O’Connor and Karlswood had an impressive double clear round in 40.86 just 0.14 off second, one to watch for the future. Cian O’Connor said: “My friend Shane Carey saw Karlswood in Sweden and I put a syndicate together to buy him that includes my sister Pippa. It’s a long road obviously from six-year-old to Grand Prix level but he seems to have all the qualities required. Max, Tom and I sourced Nolle last year in Holland. Frano has done a great job developing him slowly and I think we will see much more of him in the RDS in years to come.”

Seamus Hughes Kennedy, a member of last year’s senior European team and Aga Khan team, jumping double clear, took fifth place. This time partnering his own and Hugh McOwan’s eight-year-old Luidam Gelding HK Fury, Hughes Kennedy went double clear in 42.53. Jessica Burke has had a very successful year competing at the World Cup Final in America earlier in the year before moving back to Ireland, took sixth place in the very high calibre jump off.

Burke’s partner this time was Ballyward Estates’ Rials Varinjo, the Farinjo Des Mec seven-year-old gelding completing the jump off clear in a time of 43.81.