THE hugely-popular Northern Ireland Festival takes place from Friday, May 2nd to Sunday, May 4th at the Cavan Equestrian Centre, where this year the fixture will have its own anthem, Ride To Glory.

Available to listen to on YouTube and to download on iTunes, Spotify, TikTok and Snapchat, the anthem was written and performed by Astor Montgomery, who will be attending the three-day show as one of the judges and under his non-stage name of Alex Osborn.

No doubt, he will be cajoled into giving a live performance of Ride To Glory, but Alex will be kept busy in his official capacity from day one when he will start his judging duties in the Blue Ring with the home-produced working hunter horses through to Sunday evening’s supreme championships in the Gold Ring.

One can enter almost any class at the Festival, apart from the prestigious Festival working hunter classes, for which horses and ponies must be pre-qualified. Qualifiers continue to take place throughout the country in advance of the closing date, which is midnight on Sunday, April 6th. Providing classes are not full, entries will also be taken at the show, when they will be more expensive.