FIVE sporting owners ensured that the Croker Cup class, judged by Bernard le Courtois and Richard Ramsay, went ahead this year.

It was the second time for the French stud owner and journalist to judge this Horse Sport Ireland-supported championship for thoroughbred stallions, having co-judged in 2008 when Watermill Swatch, sire of this year’s Dublin supreme hunter champion Bloomfield Watergate, won for Kylemore Stud.

The seven stallions had their customary preliminary parade on Friday, after The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship. Several stallion owners felt that the Croker Cup itself could similarly be scheduled to run immediately after Saturday morning’s broodmare and foal classes.

Instead, the racehorse to riding horse class was slotted in between the Coote and Croker Cup championships and after the late-running broodmare classes, stallion owners had a two-hour delay before the class began.

This year’s list of stallions, bred around the globe, consisted of Shaun Doherty’s 14-year-old German-bred Kopperfield (Mamool x General Assembly); Eamon and Gladys McArdle’s Drumhowan Stud’s pair of Rosier (High Chaparral x Dowsing) and Sir Lando (Lando x Nashwan), bred in Italy and the UK respectively and two Kildare-bred greys: Patrick McCarthy’s Alhebayeb (Dark Angel x Indian Ridge) and John Varley’s Centennial (Dalakhani x Lure).

As the Jim Bolger-bred News Anchor (New Approach x Teofilo) was an absentee for Clohamon Stud’s Michael Murphy, bringing this year’s field up to seven was Julie Radden’s Galileo Dance and his full-brother Galileo’s Secret, this one co-owned with Patrick Whelan.

The judges honed in on the Wexford pair and after some comparison, they opted for the seven-year-old Galileo Dance, bred in Canada by Charles E. Fipke. Both are by champion sire Galileo and out of the Danehill Dancer mare Dance Secretary.

The judges were surprised to hear the two stallions they had focused on were full-brothers, a rarity in the Croker Cup. “To me, the bay [champion] is more Galileo,” remarked le Courtois, who, like his co-judge, was also taken by his full-brother’s presence.

“I loved him too because he [Galileo’s Secret] had so much presence. He walked up like ‘I’m here!’ Two very nice young horses,” said Ramsay.

“I found ‘Leo’ [Galileo Dance] in November 2020,” said Julie, who bought both the bay and his five-year-old brother Galileo’s Secret from Joseph O’Brien’s yard.

“They’re not treated like stallions, they’re just part of the boys at home. Galileo Dance went to Peadar Murphy in Cullintra who trained him on the dummy so that he could go competing. When he goes eventing, nobody believes he’s a stallion,” she added about the impeccably-behaved bay, shown for her at Dublin by Edward Flaherty.

“As a rising five-year-old, ‘Leo’ went to Patrick [Whelan]. He’s had three Eventing Ireland wins and the plan is to hopefully go two-star next year.

“Speechless, it just doesn’t happen to someone like us, does it?” was her reaction to winning.

From Caim, near Enniscorthy, Julie kept the Wexford strike rate up with a win in the two-year-old lightweight gelding class and Pembroke Cup reserve title for Master Clinton (HHS Cornet) out of her well-known Rose Garland.

“He’ll go out to grass now and if not sold, will be back next year. The aim for me is to breed a quality blood type horse for eventing, but if they’re correct enough, which hopefully they are, then it’s nice to showcase them in Dublin as well.”