IT’s good to see younger animals come on the ridden and performance Connemara scene each year but they have their work cut out to beat Bob Marley who won the North Down Marquees working hunter championship for the third time on Thursday evening. The section was judged by Dorothy Guilford (jumping) and Rachel Bennett-Hamilton (manners, conformation and movement and breed type) and their winner of the class for riders not over 16 years of age was the mare Oileán Arann Cailín (by Spiddal Playboy) who was partnered by Anna Byrne for her mother Joannie Glennon.

Bred by Seán Ó Dioráin of Inverin, Co Galway out of his homebred Windy’s Boy mare Oilean Aran Mist, the grey took class honours ahead of the dual Dublin Connemara performance hunter winner, Rachel Kelly’s Annagh Storm, a 14-year-old gelding by Ashfield Festy.