Margie McLoone, Isabel Hurley and Susan Finnerty

THERE was much shock and sadness in both Irish and international horse circles at the news of the death of legendary show horse producer and judge Frances Cash on Tuesday.

A consummate horsewoman to her fingertips, Frances set the standard for decades in the show ring for all others to aspire to.

And what a standard it was, a phenomenal judge of a horse and a tireless hard worker, it’s unlikely that her extraordinary achievement in winning seven supreme hunter championship titles at the RDS will ever be surpassed.

In addition, Frances was a very accomplished point-to-point rider with over 50 wins to her name between the flags. In 1976, she won the prestigious Sweet Afton hunter chase at Dundalk on her own Bargello gelding, Barouche, bred by Joe McGrath. She was also a club member and loyal support of the Ward Union Hunt, as well as a Turf Club steward.

The only child of dairy farmer, horse dealer and trainer, Michael Fitzgibbon and his wife May of Liskennet House, Croom, Frances rode from an early age, enjoying hunting on her pony Fairy, mainly with the defunct Croom Harriers, a private family pack.

Her father had a lifelong interest in showing and that love was passed down to Frances who started her equestrian career on a bay pony called Silver Curls. At the age of 10, Frances won her first class at the RDS on a 14.2hh pony After Hours.

In 1969 the Fitzgibbons moved to Garavogue House outside Prosperous in Co Kildare and shortly afterwards, Frances married the renowned horse dealer Ned Cash.

The couple spent their first four years together living in Moate where they concentrated on producing show jumpers.

Speaking to The Irish Field in 2008, Frances said: “Both Ned and I had a good eye but no matter how perfect its conformation, a horse needs to be a good ride with manners and it takes a lot of hard work to produce a champion. Nothing can be left to chance.”

Nothing was left to chance as their extraordinary roll of honour which continued through the years illustrates.

The first supreme champion produced from The Moy, Summerhill, was the powerful chesnut Standing Ovation, found near Mullingar. Like most of the Cash title winners, the son of Carnival Night was also four-year-old and heavyweight champion at the RDS in 1983 and sold on, was champion at the Horse of the Year Show the following season.

Three years later, it was another four-year-old heavyweight (again by Carnival Night) who won the supreme championships for the husband and wife team. Overture was subsequently sold to hunting interests in Rome.

Two years after Ned’s death in 1988, Frances moved back to Garavogue and began searching for her next supreme champion.

She had to wait until 1994 when she partnered her own Glengarriff to further RDS glory. The Leapman six-year-old middleweight gelding won all over Ireland before being sold to Britain.

The Cash-ridden supreme champions of 1998 and 2000 were both heavyweights purchased at Goresbridge and produced for British couple Tony and Julie Lockwood.

Formidable, the first of the pair, was a four-year-old by the thoroughbred Caesar Imperator while the five-year-old Caruso was a son of Tara Clover. In landing her fifth supreme championship title, Cash displayed great courage having just returned to the saddle after major surgery.

Back-to-back supreme championship victories were realised when Neil Holloway’s Cashmere proved unbeatable in Dublin in 2001.

Frances returned to the thoroughbred world in 2003 to produce Hochmagandy for the show on behalf of artist Peter Curling and his wife Louise Wood. The Mandalus gelding had been bought as a four-year-old for 11,000gns at Tattersalls Ireland’s August Sale in 2000 but showed little enthusiasm for racing.

Five months later, the seven-year-old carried all before him in Dublin to give Frances her seventh championship title, surpassing the six-win record set by Nat Galway Greer.

“I’ve got the record now and I must admit I did get a lump in my throat when they called out the supreme,’’ Cash said afterwards.

In recent years, Frances also enjoyed and was successful at pinhooking at the thoroughbred sales, selling under the Fox family’s Ardrums House Stud.

FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS

Although she had bravely fought cancer in recent years, Frances had been in very good form. However her health suddenly deteriorated after apparently being stung by a wasp at the weekend and she passed away in St James’s Hospital on Tuesday.

Her Removal is on Sunday evening to St Benignus Church, Staplestown, 7pm and her funeral Mass will be held on Monday at 1pm followed by burial in St Benignus Cemetery. Family flowers only, donations, if desired, to The Friends of St Brigid’s Hospice, The Curragh, Co Kildare.