UNDER the new sponsorship of Tiernan Gill Brooklands Bedding, the first championship to be judged in Ring 1 next Wednesday morning at this year’s Dublin Horse Show will be for riding horses.

In 2019, this title went to Amanda Torrens’s British-bred gelding Leave It To You who earlier won the ‘small’ riding horse class where, as in the championship, he stood ahead of Patrice Dorney’s four-year-old Ol Metta gelding Wall Street.

Now 15 years of age, Leave It To You has displayed his well-being this season by winning at Balmoral and Tattersalls Ireland (where he was champion) under Rachel Moore while he was crowned supreme champion of show at last week’s Irish Pony Society summer championships at Castle Irvine, Necarne.

Thorntons Recycling are continuing their sponsorship of the small hunter championship which takes place in the same ring on Wednesday afternoon.

Since their win in the ladies’ astride championship at Balmoral, the four and five-year-old class here has been the target of Nicola Martin with her father Tim’s Sister Act II.

Hopefully, Martin will have recovered from the hand injury which saw the winning ride on the well-related four-year-old Emperor Augustus mare at Tattersalls go to Lesley Jones.

Brian Murphy finished second at the Co Meath show riding Helena Hennessy Ruane’s Ballarin Bada Bing, a six-year-old Campaign Swing gelding who won the Horse of the Year Show small hunter qualifier at Necarne last week.

With the age limit having been removed from the show hunter classes, it will be interesting to see how many entries have been received for the two sportsman (amateur hunter) classes which are scheduled to start shortly after 6pm on Saturday.