THERE were additional Horse of the Year Show qualifiers at this year’s Northern Ireland Festival with Paul Smith, chairman of the organising committee, saying: “We hope the 11 who qualify will continue to represent the show as successfully as those who have qualified in previous years.”

A standalone qualifier on Saturday was that for the National Pony Society/Baileys Horse Feeds ridden Connemara of the Year championship and this was won by last August’s Dublin flat champion, Loughderg Star, whose many other titles to date include that of supreme ridden pony at Clifden in 2023.