By Tara Dunne

Flexible FIVE-YEAR-OLD

championship

GREG Broderick completed his hat-trick of wins at the Dublin Horse Show when triumphing in Sunday morning’s Flexible Five-Year-Old National Championship with Alberta Mist.

The final rider in an eight-way decider, Broderick knew exactly what had to be done and clinched the victory in the €10,000 class when clear in a time of 30.79 seconds.

Broderick, thrilled with his week’s success, concluded: “I really just want to thank all my owners and my staff. We had 11 horses here this week and the staff put in trojan hours, I couldn’t have done it without all of them.”

Broderick’s last minute coup relegated Ger O’Neill and Ard Ginger Pop to the runner-up position. O’Neill and the Luidam-sired mare had been favourites for the win after a string of successes leading up to the championship.

Ard Ginger Pop won the RDS qualifier at Coilog EC, the five-year-old ISH Showjumping Series Grand Final and the opening qualifying round for the five-year-old divisions in Dublin. The penultimate rider in the jump-off, O’Neill had set the bar high when stopping the clock at 31.04 but ultimately had to settle for second place.

WHEELS GOING

Afterwards Broderick said: “To be honest when I saw Ger’s round I said I was jumping for second place but we just got the wheels going then. I think I was very fast from one to two and Alberta Mist is exceptionally careful with a great canter so it was easy to leave strides out with him.”

Owned by Caledonia Stables, Alberta Mist is by Womanizer out of a Landino dam and was bred by Ronnie Kelly. Broderick has produced the gelding and the pair first impressed when winning the four-year-old championships at Cavan International last November.

This year Alberta Mist has been consistently placed in the ISH Showjumping Series and the gelding will contest the World Breeding Championships at Lanaken unless Broderick gets the call up for the clashing Nations Cup at Arezzo with MHS Going Global.

Broderick also took sixth position on the day with the Cruisings Mickey Finn-sired mare Boleybawn Mystique. Logging an exceptionally quick time of 31.20, Broderick was put out of contention when faulting on the way home but proved to be the quickest of the four faulters.

Coming home inside the 32 second mark to claim third place in the line-up was Alison Irwin with Aghafad Armani Mist. Drawn at the midway point in the clocked round, the northern rider had set the standard to beat when recording a fault free round in a time of 31.61 with Heather Johnston’s Gatsby-sired mare.

The William O’Brien-owned and bred Mr O Brien Two You took fourth for Gemma Phelan in 32.03 and with the last of the double clear rounds was Mary McShane with the homebred MMS Camilla. McShane’s more cautious approach paid dividends when the Camiro De Haar Z-sired mare finished in 34.93 to share the prize fund.