CONNOLLY’S Red Mills has announced the return of the prestigious Showing Ireland Champion of Champions series for its seventh consecutive year, as well as an exciting initiative in the ‘Grand Slam of Showing’.

The Champion of Champions series offers a combined prize fund of €5,000 and attracts both professional and amateur riders for the weighted hunters, ridden horses, and amateur sections, each holding significant prestige. The first of 10 qualifiers takes place at Balmoral next week.

New for 2025, the Connolly’s Red Mills Grand Slam of Showing will reward the ultimate showing combination: any horse and rider duo that wins their class at Balmoral, secures victory in one of the three Champion of Champions Finals, and triumphs in their class at Dublin will be awarded one tonne of Red Mills horse feed.

To date, no combination has ever achieved this remarkable feat within the same calendar year – will 2025 be the year history is made?

Jane Davis, head of marketing at Red Mills, said: “We are incredibly proud to have supported this initiative from the very beginning and to have remained committed ever since. The introduction of the Grand Slam this year brings a whole new level of excitement and opportunity, and we are thrilled to be part of it. This series was always about celebrating the grassroots of showing, engaging directly with local country shows, and opening up the sport to a wider audience — together with Showing Ireland these values remain at the very heart of everything we do.”

Angus McDonnell, Chairman of Showing Ireland, added: “On behalf of Showing Ireland, I would again like to thank Red Mills for their continued sponsorship and support for the 2025 Champion of Champions league. This league has gone from strength with our principles of promoting riding show horses as an equestrian discipline in its own right and support the shows who provide us with the great venues to compete.

“The Grand Slam of Showing is a fantastic new initiative, a first in the world for show horses, and I know it will be a prize that all show riders will want chase as a career highlight.”