THE first of this year’s qualifiers for the Balmoral Star of the Future performance horse championships was held last Saturday at The Meadows Equestrian Centre where there was a runaway winner in the five-year-old class and a very close result in the six and seven-year-old section.

The judge for this year’s series is Gillian Kyle whose younger winner was the Irish Sport Horse mare Alland Daisy (92.5 marks out of 100). Ridden by Yvonne Whiteside for her Co Down owner-breeder, Allison Mercer, the bay daughter of Ramiro B scored consistently highly throughout, receiving 28.5 marks out of 30 for scope and 19 out of 20 for potential.

Alland Daisy, who started competing under Show Jumping Ireland rules this season and has seven points to her credit, is out of the unraced Balla Cove mare Cove Point. She is thus a full-sister to the 2017 mare Remember Bea who, from five outings last spring under Gemma Esler, won two EI90 classes and was fifth at EI100 level.

A regular competitor in these young horse classes, Gwen Scott finished second on Wallis Birch’s home-bred ISH gelding First Glance (83.5) who, being by Obelix out of the Silvano mare Cairnside Hoity Toity, is a full-brother to the top working hunter First Rate. Six of the 10 starters in this class erred over the Aaron McCusker-built track including the third-placed ISH gelding Ballyv Blake (71), a Luidam bay ridden by Holly McClenaghan

The judge and scorers had to work a lot harder in the six and seven-year-old qualifier as not only were there 18 starters but two of them were virtually inseparable as they both completed on a total of 93.5 marks.

Riding for his loyal supporter Carole Hawthorne, Newcastle’s Jim Newsam achieved that score on board the ISH gelding Tullybee Louie who has done a small amount of registered show jumping. A six-year-old son of Tyson, this bay was bred in Co Clare by Kevin Bermingham out of the Cougar mare Templemaley Express who herself was out of an OBOS Quality 004 mare out of a Grey Macha mare.

Also completing on 93.5 was Hannah Blakely riding another six-year-old bay ISH gelding, Lougherne Casanova, who has 17 Show Jumping Ireland points to his credit.

Home-bred at the Lougherne Stud outside Hillsborough by Jane Allen-Collins, Lougherne Casanova is by the Grade B show jumping stallion Lougherne Caravaggio. His dam is the Limmerick mare Lougherne Gypsy who is dam also of the jumper Lougherne After Dark (by Antaeus). Blakley also finished sixth on the same owner’s Lougherne Kingfisher on whom she won the six to eight-year-old final at Balmoral Show last May.

In deciding who should finish first, the scorers first looked at the potential marks awarded by Kyle but, as both horses were on 19 (out of 20), they then referred to the judge’s marks for conformation where, out of 10, Tullybee Louie came out the better on nine compared to Lougheren Casanova’s 7.5.

Third place in Saturday’s qualifier was filled by Suzanne Hagan riding her Judith Sossick-bred Loughview Commander (90.5). This highly-regarded seven-year-old Cobra gelding, who topped Kyle’s potential marks on 19.5, finished second in the CCIYH2*-S for six-year-olds at Millstreet last August and rounded off the season by winning the EI110 for six and seven-year-olds at Punchestown in October.

Jonny Steele finished fourth and fifth with Fran Rowlatt-McCormick’s Centre Stage gelding Mon Ami Beauvallet (85.5) and John Simpson’s Uskerty Diamond Lad gelding Somerville Springheeled (84.5). Both owner-bred bays had a fence down apiece.

Not too surprisingly, many horses showed signs of greenness at this early stage of the season but riders will have the opportunity to work on these issues before the second qualifier for these Gibson Equine Haylage-sponsored championships which is scheduled for Sunday next, March 19th, at Hazeldene Farm.