CLAIMING the honours in a class that is fast becoming his own, Co Meath auctioneer John Bannon racked up an unprecedented hat-trick to win the three-year-old potential young event horse championship for the third year in succession.

Modestly describing himself as a hobby producer, Bannon is one of the most astute pin hookers in the game, and this time around he scored with Hugo, a gelding by the young sire Rock ‘n Roll Ter Putte. Placed third after the morning’s presentation phase, Bannon’s charge progressed to put in a professional display of jumping, pushing his overall score into an ultimately unbeatable position.

Bannon was also placed sixth and, speaking after his win, he commented: “I knew coming into the class I had two very nice horses and, while I always liked the winner, the judges in the qualifiers appeared to favour the other.”

Both of Bannon’s entrants had been sourced from their breeders, and it was Nenagh-based William McDonnell Jnr, who collected the special €1,500 reward as the breeder of the winner. By Greg Broderick’s Rock ‘n Roll Ter Putte (KWPN), Hugo is the fifth progeny of Lucys Harle (Harlequin du Carel) and is a half-brother to the Brendan Murphy-ridden jumper PLS Somers Night (1.40m).

Bannon bought him as a two-year-old, having diverted to the McDonnell’s Pallas stud on a business trip from his Co Meath home en route to Limerick. “I had time to spare, so arranged to go to see what William had about. He is a big horse and has a lovely way of going. He is broken now and, having been selected, we have the option of going to the Goresbridge Go For Gold sale in November.”

Lucrative

With a generous prize fund – this year supported by HSI and DAFM - the lucrative winner’s pot of €5,000 and monetary rewards for all qualifiers, ensures this is always a highly competitive class. Sixteen starters (11 geldings, two colts, three fillies) from the six regional qualifiers came forward on Wednesday morning, where they were assessed on the flat by former Badminton and Burghley winning event rider, Lucinda Fredericks.

Surprisingly, this was Fredericks first visit to the RDS, and she was hugely complimentary of both the show and the quality of horses before her. Speaking of the winner, she remarked: “He was beautifully presented and consistently showed looseness through his jump. It was a tough call however, and very hard to choose, because they were all top-quality horses and it was difficult to fault them. The second horse was physically a bit weaker, but potentially superb.”

The latter comment was directed at Mark Hession’s runner-up Coolnorran Levant, a home-bred son of the recently deceased Vivant Van de Heffinck out of Coolnorran Liberty (Waldo Van Dungen).

A qualifier from the Co Clare showgrounds, he was somewhat down the order after the first phase, but impressing later in the day, he received the influential top mark in the jumping session. Well-related as an event horse and with a pedigree going back to the thoroughbred Kings Ride, he is a half-brother to Coolnorran Cooley who, as one of Ireland’s top six-year-olds in 2022, competed in Le Lion d’Angers the same year.

Each starter carried forward a mark out of 50 based on the conformation, and paces in walk and trot. There were a further 100 marks up for grabs in the evening session, which as usual was staged in the cage in the international warm up sand arena. These marks were divided into sectors for jumping technique, canter, reflexes, standard of training and potential, and although flexible at times horses had six opportunities to impress.

Last year’s decision to omit the triangle in the presentation phase proved a positive step, and thus enabled Fredericks to assess the youngsters more efficiently. She gave every horse the opportunity to impress in hand, stressing the importance of not only movement and jumping ability, but also temperament, trainability and attitude.

This last ingredient was demonstrated in her liking for Trevor Horgan’s third placed filly by Lucky Luck (KWPN) out of Pallas Q Ball (Castlecomer Q), who like many others, found the distance tight in the loose jumping pen. Despite not having a completely smooth run, she nevertheless picked up the nearest jumping mark to the winner, and led Fredericks to comment: “I loved her attitude when things did not go quite right, and her quick footwork and lightness.”

Overall, the standard of entrants since the class’ inception has increased ten- fold, and has certainly become more uniform. All were beautifully presented, and one to stand out in the morning session was Andrew Gardiner’s Doonaveeragh Two O One. The son of Lagans OBOS Quality, himself a former winner here back in 2017, headed the group, but with marks tightly clustered at the business end, slipped down the order in the evening session. In contrast, one who ricocheted up the leaderboard to fill fourth was Sean Kelly’s Lady Jordan, a filly by Avos Jordan Z out of Ballynahia Quality by OBOS Quality.

Shown by Philip Carroll, who also owns the sire, he is another with a stout eventing dam’s line being out of a good jumping mare, who is a full-sister to the Tom McEwen-ridden Nations Cup horse, Brookfield Quality. Others to impress were Gabriel Slattery’s fifth placed gelding by Acorad 3 (dam by Captain Clover), while half a point adrift was John Bannon’s second representative, a gelding by Lagans OBOS Quality.