Ploughing

Championships cancelled

The 2020 National Ploughing Championships has been cancelled. The event was due to return to Co Carlow, from September 15-17th.

In a statement, managing director Anna May McHugh said: “The executive reached this very difficult decision to cancel the trade exhibition as public health and safety is our foremost priority given the current global pandemic. With visitor attendance last year of 297,000 and up to 1,700 exhibitors, we had too many concerns about how we could implement social distancing.”

The Ploughing Championships is worth €35 million to the economy every year. The NPA hopes to run the actual ploughing behind closed doors.

Cos I Can (ISH) retired to Ireland

THE Irish Sport Horse Cos I Can (Olympic Lux x Harlequin du Carel) has returned to Ireland to be retired with his breeder, John Griffin, in Co Limerick. The 17-year-old gelding was ridden at the highest level of the sport by Shane Breen and later USA’s Reed Kessler. With Breen, he jumped a clear round in the five-star Nations Cup in Hickstead to help Ireland to victory, among many other top results.

SJI tickets

LAST week, we reported that horses would jump on temporary tickets in the article about HSI’s plans to re-open the industry. This was incorrect.

An SJI spokesperson cleared up the issue, saying: “Athletes have to be paid up members of SJI but they can jump a horse that is not registered on a temporary ticket, ie if they have a four year old etc. The riders themselves have to be registered members. It was to facilitate riders that were not ready to register all of their horses just yet.”

Horsemeat fraud

TWO fraudulent horsemeat shipments were seized in Europe last week, marking the start of an expected surge in food fraud.

The seizures have reinforced concerns among food safety experts that criminals will target food supply chains disrupted by the pandemic.

The horsemeat samples were held in The Netherlands and Denmark, with one intended for “unauthorised placing on the market,” according to the EU’s RASFF food safety register.