MOON Over Claddagh failed to finish in the top three in five starts on the track but, at the Flavours of Fingal County Show last Saturday, he not only won the RDS racehorse to riding horse qualifier but ousted the 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Native River from the top spot.

Fourteen combinations appeared before judges Harry Scanlan (ride) and Ryan Anderson (conformation) in this Fairyhouse and Navan Racecourses-sponsored class and they had little hesitation in placing Native River at the head of their original line-up as the 15-year-old Indian River gelding made his Irish showing debut under Co Meath’s Emily MacMahon.