LAMBAY Stud’s Ann Grimes spent four days at the Horse of The Year Show last week, being ready to enter the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham for the start of the first class at 7am on the Wednesday and then leaving a day earlier than normal on the Saturday evening.

While the breeder would usually be found following all the pony showing classes, last week she had more of an interest in the pony action over the coloured poles as she bred one of the finalists in Saturday morning’s 128cm championship, the Welsh Section B mare Lambay Off Broadway.

Ridden since the start of the season by Douglas Breen, 12-year-old son of Irish international Shane Breen and his wife Chloe, the grey was one of seven ponies to get through to the timed round, where he was clear again, stopping the clock on 25.77 for second place. The narrow winner in 25.60 was Anya Dewey Clarke on the Irish-bred Jim (Cobid), a 17-year-old grey gelding, with the same young rider placing third on another Irish-bred Welsh Section B gelding, Kilcreene Snapdragon (26.02).

The latter, a 12-year-old chesnut by Moelview Cherokee, was bred by Thalia Smithwick out of the Gigman Orinoco mare Kilcreene Coral, who has bred two other Grade A jumpers by the same sire.

Unfortunately for Skerries-based Grimes, Lambay Off Broadway, who is a son of Lennards Monogram, is the only foal she bred out of the 2010 Cusop Steward mare Linksbury Cinderella.