RATHANGAN’s Nicola Perrin had to settle for the reserve slot in the Gill Group riding horse championship at Dublin in 2022 on Ballarin Baroness and in 2023 on Ballarin Rose Bud but hopes to make it third time lucky on an Irish Sport Horse mare when partnering Ballarin Babette at next week’s Dublin Horse Show. She didn’t have a ride in the class last August.

Perrin’s chesnut daughter of Portlaoise Just Tuch, who was reserve in the recent Connolly’s Red Mills champion of champions ridden horse final at Barnadown, is one of four four-year-olds in the small horse class which, starting at 8.30am, is the first to be judged in Ring 1 by Jack Moore and Dale Atkinson.