THE links between racing, hunting and, to a lesser extent farming, were obvious last Sunday following the running of the Randox Ulster National over an extended three and a half miles at Downpatrick.

Clear to all, the successful Yeats gelding Dunboyne was escorted back to the winner’s enclosure by Declan Phelan and Ruairi Barlow, huntsman and trainee whipper-in with the East Down Hunt. Their respective mounts, Spartacus and Harley, were beautifully plaited by Hannah Maginn who is well-known for her turnout at shows of her family’s Lisnamaul Salers.

Dunboyne is owned by Stephen O’Connor, a joint-Master of the Ward Union Hunt, and is trained for him by Ian Donoghue who, when setting out to be a huntsman, started his internship with Phelan at the East Down kennels. From there, he moved to being a whip with the Louths and then huntsman with the Co Downs. A change of career saw Ian move back home to Co Meath, but he has a lot of friends in Northern Ireland, who were delighted to see him win the historic race on Sunday.

O’Connor has owned Dunboyne since November 2020 and he was in training with Gordon Elliott until this summer when, pulled up four times in a row, it was decided that a change of scenery would do him good. On Sunday, Dunboyne was winning for the second time in two starts since switching stables.

Ian passed on much of the credit for these wins to his 19-year-old brother Ross who works with him full-time and hunted the 10-year-old a couple of times and generally tricked around with him to sweeten him up. Ross hunts regularly with the Wards, as does his good friend James Smith, who rode Dunboyne to his half-length win on Sunday.

Stressfully for Ian’s parents, Tricia and Michael, who were at the meeting, Dunboyne had to battle for victory climbing the uphill straight with the Gavin Cromwell-trained Final Orders, who was partnered by another of their sons, Keith. Neither of their daughters was present, as Chloe was hosting a children’s birthday party, while Gemma was at the Kildare performance hunter show in Punchestown, disappointingly on her feet as she failed to get her hunter entered.

As he was working, O’Connor couldn’t make the meeting either, but he had the added pleasure from afar of seeing the branded logo of his company, The Underwriting Exchange, being carried to victory twice during the afternoon by Keith.

The second of those winners, the Cromwell-trained Ballysax Hank, a six-year-old chesnut gelding by Eliot, was bred out of the Gothenberg mare Gothen Niece by Liam Tougher, who stands the little-used Irish Draught stallion Ballysax Hero (by Star Kingdom) at his Co Kildare stud. Liam has cut back a lot on sport horse breeding but says he has a very nice three-year-old colt by his stallion out of a warmblood mare.

Tougher also has a five-year-old French Navy half-sister to Ballysax Hank who is due to run in six to seven weeks and a two-year-old full-brother to Sunday’s winner.

The Donoghue family all got together to celebrate Dunboyne’s victory on Sunday night at Gormleys in Garristown, a much-visited establishment when the Ward Union meet in the village, while proprietor Niall Gormley hunts regularly with the pack.