CHLOE Lacey, Outbound Sales Representative for The Irish Field and our sister publication, the Irish Farmers Journal, bagged herself a Horse Of The Year Show ticket last Saturday when winning the Mountain and Moorland ridden Connemara qualifier at the Northern Ireland Festival on Aoife O’Connor’s Ballylee Castle Prince.

“When this pony was five – he’s now 12 – Aoife’s daughter Sadhbh was meant to ride him but she broke her leg and I was offered him for the season,” related Wicklow native Lacey who has done little riding in the past couple of years because of work commitments. “This year Sadhbh had too many ponies to compete so rather than leave ‘Prince’ out in the field, they offered him to me again and I jumped at the chance to come out of retirement! We picked him up in the last week of February.

“I’ll be eternally grateful to the O’Connors for allowing me ride Prince again as he has a special place in my heart and I used to visit him three or four times a year. I must also thank my grandfather, Pat Lacey, who lets the pony out each morning and back in at evening time while I’m in the office, my mother Polly, who does all the other jobs that need to be done at home, and my boyfriend, jockey Dylan Robinson who helps me out whenever he can.

“Sadhbh and Prince won the ridden Connemara championship at Balmoral last year but he’s not even entered for next week and is, in fact, on a few days’ holiday. Although the Horse of the Year Show doesn’t take place until October, I’m not going to take him out too often and plan to restrict him to five or six shows over the summer.”

Ballylee Castle Prince was bred in Co Galway by Declan O’Flynn. The grey is by Slackport Prince out of the Finisglen Joey mare, Killoughter Jug.

Tickets

Among those who secured HOYS working hunter pony tickets at Cavan were Ellie Rogan with the 13-year-old grey gelding Corries Jack In A Box (133cms) and Lara Field with her mother Marjorie Hardiman’s home-bred Connemara Creganna Kerfuffle (143cms), a mare by Silver Shadow. Alicia Devlin Byrne won the HOYS working hunter horse qualifier with the Irish Draught gelding Gort Town Dancer, an eight-year-old grey by Gortfree Hero.