A FUNERAL service was held at Roselawn Crematorium on Monday for artist, racehorse owner and one-time amateur rider Basil Blackshaw who died a week earlier at the age of 83.

Speaking to The Irish Field back in March 2006, following the first of two consecutive successes in the Ulster National by his Old Vic gelding News Item, Blackshaw described the bay as ‘‘probably the best horse’’ to have carried his colours.