AS with all the classes over the weekend, the ORHRE (O’Reilly Hyland Real Estate) four-year-old championship at the Irish Breeders’ Classic at Barnadown was adapted because of the weather conditions. The three qualifying rounds were reduced to two and, to qualify, horse and rider combinations had to go clear in one of the two qualifiers.

Forty-four combinations took on the final round and the top 11 after round one were called back for round two to jump over a shortened course. The final was a judged class, where horses received up to 10 points for jumping each fence clear and also for rideability, scope and future potential. The two judges on the day were the experienced and very knowledgeable pair, Robert Splaine and Michael Condon.

Talking with The Irish Field, Michael Condon commented: “It was a very good class with a big number, the top-10 horses were very nice and overall there was a lot of quality in the field. I can see a few horses jumping in big rings in the future and some of the horses that were unlucky not to make the top 10 have a bright future also. The riders must take big credit, because the rideability of the horses was excellent.”

There was suspense all the way through the second round, as the quality was of such a high standard and, with just 0.5 of a mark separating the top two horses, it was Alice Martin Jones with Moon Knight Del Colle who took the win. The French-bred grey stallion by Candy De Nantuel scored a very impressive 333 points over the two rounds.

Amazing

Speaking after her win, Alice told The Irish Field: “We have had a fantastic summer with Otis, he is a horse that just wants to please and I’ve had great fun with him too. It was a very competitive class, with some exceptional four-year-olds competing here at Barnadown, so to take the win is just amazing. Hats off to the organisers for keeping the show on the road, as the weather has definitely been a challenge to say the least and a big credit must go to Jason Higgins for giving me a hand with Otis as well.”

Just pipped into second place was Abigail Boland with her own and Northlawn Farms’ Skittle Van’t Ommerveld scoring 332.5 points. Abigail told The Irish Field: “I was delighted with the way my mare jumped in the final, I thought she jumped very well. I bought her with Jack Ryan from Northlawn Farm a few weeks ago from Holland and she has been a lovely horse since arriving. She is by Zinelord VDL and out of a Dakar mare and we think a lot of her, I’m very excited to grow the partnership in the future.”

Catherine Thornton completed an all-female podium, when partnering Cariad and Hugo McAlpine’s Killybrick Contessa into third place scoring 322 points. Aoife Dooley with her own Silvertip JS took fourth, while Patrick Doyle took fifth with Martin Doyle’s PC Original. Vincent Byrne completed the top six with Chableu SS, the Chacoon Blue gelding owned by Annmarie Dunne.

It was an impressive coaching performance by Jason Higgins, who not only coached the winner Alice, but also Abigail in second and Aoife Dooley in fourth, speaking to The Irish Field after the class, Higgins commented: “It was a great result, well deserved, the three girls work very hard at what they do and had their horses going very nicely. Very special win for Alice and the lads that own the horse, they all got a great buzz out of it.”