THE well-known horseman, former international show jumper, amateur jockey and show horse producer Ned Cash Jr has sadly passed away.

Friends have described Ned as a gentleman, quiet - yet witty, an honest man to do business with and a great friend.

Ned Jr was very modest about his equestrian achievements and his funeral during Dublin Horse Show week is also a reminder of him competing on two Nations Cup Aga Khan teams and the many winners he had in the Dublin ring.

His favourite place at the Show, with his beloved wife Del who grew up in the same village and he married in 1977, was on the corner of Ring 2 beside the Anglesea Stand where the world would come to meet him.

As his grandniece, Ali, movingly said at his Requiem Mass, Del was his rock and where Del was so was Ned, and he would be lost without her. Although they had no children of their own, Ali said that Ned was like a father figure to all the youngsters in the family, and when he spoke, they all listened and he was there when they had a problem and was much respected for his words of wisdom.

Ned Jr came from a long line of horsemen and women. There were seven in the family born to his father Ned Sr and his mother Nellie (Purcell) – brothers Miley, Jim, John, Mick, Bill and sister Margaret (Missy) and they grew up at The Old Mill in Clane, Co Kildare, beside the River Liffey where his father ran a dealing yard. The whole family became good swimmers as his father constructed a diving board over the Liffey.

Ned Cash Jr riding Look Out at the Dublin Horse Show \ Noel Mullins

Show jumping

He told me once that he competed on ponies at the Dublin Horse Show for only a short time as he never had a good one, graduating to horses at a very young age as his father had so many top show jumpers passing through the yard.

Many of the horses were household names like Derrypatrick, Buttevant Boy, Mostrim, Dun Gleen, Look Out, Condy, Castlepark, Lydican, Thatch, Moydrum, Hopeful Marcus, Daddy’s Girl, Mr Spock, Slaney, Andante, Thor, Snaffles, Wellington, Doneraile and Bandalero. They were competed in competition by top international riders.

For 12 years many of his father’s horses represented Ireland on Aga Khan teams, and on one occasion all the horses on the Aga Khan team passed through his father’s hands.

Ned Jr won the Spillar’s Bursary on a number of occasions on Look Out, his father’s favourite horse, and was leading national horse for four years; he also won an international team relay with Kevin Barry and a Derby Trial on Dun Gleen. Ned went on to ride for top producer in Northern Ireland Frank Kernan and had a very successful run for three years winning the Guinness Championship on Marcella.

His first Aga Khan team call up was in 1974, riding Dun Gleen, with Eddie Macken riding Boomerang, Michael Hickey on Lydican and Capt Ned Campion on Garryowen.

He was on winning Nations Cup teams in both Rome and Geneva and he won the international class at the Royal Show in Stoneleigh when the Queen Mother invited him up to the Royal Box. She asked him if he had anybody with him and Ned Jr said just his father Ned Sr so she invited him up too.

She then asked them if they were going to celebrate the win and Ned Sr said they would be going out on the town but, as he was already committed, he could not invite her along but if she ever wanted a nice horse to give him a ring!

Horse racing

But despite all his success at show jumping Ned Jr always said his favourite equestrian sports were racing and hunting, enjoying days out with Paddy and Maureen Powell who were hunting the Naas Harriers, Patrick Ellis and Hon Diana Conolly-Carew (Baroness Wrangel), masters of the North Kildares, Tara Harriers, Kildare Foxhounds, Westmeath Foxhounds and the Killinick Harriers.

Horse racing was a lifelong interest. Even when he stopped riding he was often seen at Punchestown with his friend John (Ski) Forde and he also followed it on TV when the family knew not to disturb him.

He rode his first winner in a point-to-point at the South County Dublin Harriers meeting at Blackchurch at 15 years of age and his first winner at Fairyhouse for Georgie Wells at 16 years of age. He had to lose 10lb between Friday and Monday to ride in a handicap at Leopardstown and won it by a short-head.

There were some great jockeys around at the time, such as Billy McLernon and Connie Vaughan, but Ned Jr was in demand, riding for Liam Brennan, Georgie Wells and the Bryce-Smiths.

Often, he was riding against his brothers, Jim and Mick, and his sister, Missy, on horses like You Mind Me, who Jim won the Punchestown Chase on, Chimney Smoke, Donnelly’s Joy and Misty Smoke.

He had success also at Punchestown, winning the La Touche and the Ladies Cup twice. But he said he had to reluctantly give up race riding as he had to earn a few pounds!

Show horses

Ned’s early life working in the family horse dealing business, where his father bought and produced some of the finest show jumpers, eventers and racehorses, stood him in good stead and he proved to be the master at judging a horse for any discipline.

His mother Nellie sadly lost her life in a car accident and, 16 years later, his father met Frances Fitzgibbon at Cahermee Horse Fair. They struck up a friendship and married. Frances was a natural horsewoman, winning her first class in Dublin at 10 years of age, and she rode 50 point-to-point winners, of which Barouche won eight races, going on the win the Sweet Afton Hunter Chase, a qualifier for the Aintree Grand National, but was sold beforehand.

This started a run of success that saw Frances win numerous Heavyweight, Middleweight, Lightweight and Reserve classes in Dublin, including the blue riband of showing, the Dublin Horse Show Supreme Hunter Championship of which she rode an amazing seven winners. Ned Jr spoke highly of Frances saying she was a master of her craft, dedicated and patient.

Ned Jr’s superb eye for a future champion resulted in him doing the most difficult job, travelling all around the country, eventually finding five of those champions, including Standing Ovation who was to become his father’s first Supreme Champion Hunter in 1983 followed by Overture, Glengarriff, Formidable, Caruso, Cashmere and Hackmagandi.

I once asked him what he looked for in a young horse and he said, a nice head and they need to have good bone and frame to carry their body; after that, conformation, and if they have not got good front legs, look no further. He liked being in the background but he did step forward and judged once at George Chapman’s show in Glandoran in Gorey when the appointed judge did not turn up, exchanging his baseball cap for Kieran Ryan’s flat cap for the duration of the competition.

Dublin Horse Show 2024

Around the show rings at the Dublin Horse Show two weeks ago, horsemen and women shared their memories of Ned Cash Jr. Kieran Ryan, one of Ireland’s best known horse producers, was associated with Ned Jr for over 30 years, buying, selling and producing horses and riding many of them to success.

Kieran fondly remembers Ned Jr as a great friend who he talked with almost weekly, describing him as a true gentleman with a quiet way about him. Kieran was associated with three of the Dublin Supreme Hunter Champions that Ned Jr found, ridden in Dublin by Frances Cash - Caruso in 2000, Cashmere in 2001 and Hackmagandy in 2003.

Kieran also rode Ned Jr’s show horses, including An Ceannas (The Boss) to win the Dublin Horse Show Heavyweight Championship and the Reserve Hunter Championship in 2015.

An interesting purchase by Ned Jr was a three-year-old traditionally bred by Scrapman out of the Master Imp mare Princess Boo. He was bred by Pat Gavin in Westmeath and bears the prefix of Co Clare producer Tommy Considine’s Creevagh Stables. He is named Master Plan.

He was produced and jointly-owned by Ned Jr and Kieran Ryan and ridden by Kieran’s son Ivan, a fine young show rider. After winning the Wicklow Show Hunter Championship and the Middleweight Championship at Balmoral Show, Ned Jr said: “Now they will believe me that we have something special”.

Ivan Ryan riding Ned and Del Cash's Master Plan in the Middleweight class at the 2024 Dublin Horse Show \ Noel Mullins

Last Friday week at the Dublin Horse Show, Master Plan contested the Heavyweight Hunter class ridden by Ivan, who said that Ned Jr was a gentleman to ride for and always encouraged him with positive comments. Despite many of Ned’s Jr’s friends wishing that Master Plan could do something really special and win the Heavyweight Class and even The Supreme Hunter Championship, the judges seemed to have other preferences on this occasion.

But I know that if Ned Jr was there he would be quick to say that he was proud of his horse and rider, and that they will have another day in the showing ring.

High praise

Michael Hickey, owner of Sunnyhill Stud, whose father Michael won six Dublin Supreme Hunter Championships and who rode on the Aga Khan team with Ned Jr, said that he was such a talented rider that he could ride any horse and if he could do you a favour he would.

He was happiest when with horses and loved his racing and hunting and was very kind and would always look after Michael’s wife Sheelagh out hunting, taking the most sensible line across country.

Olympian Col Ned Campion who was also on the 1974 Aga Khan team with Ned Jr remembered him as a genuine gentleman, a great horseman who rode many different horses to a high level, as he never had many of them for long enough as they were sold on. He was also a loyal friend with a sense of humour.

Edmond Mahony, chairman of Tattersalls, said that Ned Jr was his childhood hero as a rider and recalled seeing him competing on Dun Gleann in the Main Arena, and added that he was his idea of a rider. He met him later in life as he kept his hunters and show horses with Kieran Ryan and found him to be a real gentleman

Warwickshire show horse owner Tony Lockwood, who purchased many horses in Ireland and owned two of the Dublin Supreme Hunter Champions that Ned Jr found, Formidable in 1998 and Caruso in 2000, said Ned Jr was the brainchild behind the show hunters and was the main man in finding them.

Limerick horse producer Mikie Riordan said he found Ned Jr a gentleman to deal with and Willie Dunne, who now resides in South Carolina, a long-time personal friend of Ned Jr, added that Ned Jr was a gifted horseman and judge of a horse.

Former jockey Paul Kinane recalled Ned Jr as an all-round horseman and superb rider and an instinctive judge of a horse. When he had a horse that was a bit strong and not suitable for a mainstream client, he would contact him as he knew that he would suit a real horseman like Paul who would have the skill and patience to give the horse time and produce him properly.

Ned Jr will be sadly missed by his beloved wife Del, his sister Missy, brothers Bill, Mick, and the late Myles, Jim and John, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces and grandnieces and nephews, and his wide circle of friends, neighbours and customers but also his dog Fly.

After Requiem Mass in St Patrick’s and St Brigid’s Church in Clane, Ned Jr was taken to his final resting place in Mainham Cemetery to the refrain of The Contender, a song by Jimmy McCarthy about the boxer, actor and tenor Jack Doyle.