WEDNESDAY evening was a memorable night of firsts for Ballinahinch owner/breeder Gareth Carlisle, whose home-bred three-year-old MT Star Lux was the stand out performer in the Potential Young Event Horse class. Capably handled by JJ Bowe, Carlisle’s winner was not only his first ever entrant at the RDS, but the product of his first foray into breeding.

“We’ve planned and waited four years for this, and hoped he would be good enough,” he said delightedly. MT Star Lux, who qualified at Barnadown back in June, is by the young show jumping stallion Mullaghdrin Touch The Stars out of Lux So Easy, by Lux Z. The sire, who was bred by Dr Noel Cawley and is currently jumping for Ireland under Michael Duffy, belonged at the time to friends Keith and Gina Prescott.