NICKI Russell didn’t enjoy attending the Dublin Horse Show. With Sizing Australia, the Cheltenham Festival-winning cross-country race specialist, whom she had taken on at the behest of Heather De Bromhead, she had contested the racehorse to riding horse class in 2017 and 2018. The combination had finished down the line on both occasions, but in 2019 their fortunes changed.

“That was a huge year,” says Russell of 2019. “When I started doing riding horse classes, everyone said I was mad, but he was supreme champion at Show of the East that year after winning the riding horse class there. He was reserve champion at the RoR championships in Aintree too. Anyway, I entered the riding horse class in Dublin and I know he’s pin fired, but I thought I’d be delighted if we just got a rosette.