ON a disappointing day for the county hurling team, Aidan Ryan salvaged one Tipperary win last Sunday when his imposing Araglin won the ridden hunter championship at Bandon Agricultural Show. The grey had stood reserve champion here last year as a four-year-old and Dublin is the target again for the heavyweight by the late Irish Draught, WRS Sunrich, by Grey Macha. “And I have the last two by him,” said Ryan, whose brother Dermot is the general manager of Ashford Farm in Kentucky, where American Pharaoh stands.
“His ride and gallop did it for him, he had a super gallop,” remarked ride judge Brian Murphy, who with co-judge William Corrigan had the best filled classes on the day.
“It was well supported but the quality was a little bit disappointing for the numbers forward,” said Murphy, who produced the purebred Draught Fort Knocks to win the supreme hunter championship at Dublin last year.
“He’s turned into a star for his new Dutch owner, he wouldn’t part with him for the world.”
Reserve in the ODM Financial championship was another eye-catching youngster in Denis Collins’s Drohan’s Horse, by Kiltealy Silver. Sourced for his Roscarberry owner by Richard Drohan, the four-year-old winner was bred by Thomas Dunphy in Mullinavat. “He was just that little bit green but I think he’ll be a hell of a horse with a bit more mileage, he’s a proper model of a hunter,” enthused Murphy.
Jay Bowe’s Ghareeb was also the damsire of another Bandon champion when Seamus Lehane won the Permanent TSB young horse supreme championship with his three-year-old filly Ballard Peaches & Cream. The Kings Master filly, bred by Stephen McCarthy in Dunmanway, was having her first showring outing and, coincidentally, Andrew Gardiner and James Murphy’s reserve champion, Siobhan O’Brien’s loose-moving Diamond Discovery two-year-old, is her half-sister.
Murphy also deputised in the relevant classes when the breeding stock judge Walter Kent did what a good judge should and stepped out of the ring when progeny by his stallion were in contention.
The Lehane family winning streak continued when Seamus’s cousin P.J won both the Clohamon Stud broodmare and Red Mills foal championships with his combination of P.J’s Dream, a Dublin winner and two-time All Ireland champion in her youngstock days, and the Lux Z six-year-old’s Womanizer filly foal.
“She had everything, both conformation and movement,” remarked Kent afterwards. P.J still retains her Big Sink Hope dam, P.J’s Dream, a former Breeders Championship finalist. “She’s 18 now but doesn’t look it,” said the Clonakilty exhibitor about his good servant.
The Rebel County winning streak continued in the pony rings when the final supreme championship went to Bantry exhibitor John Dinneen with his homebred yearling Breeneybeg Lucy.
“She could be anything, under saddle or as a broodmare,” praised Marian Condren, who earlier in the day awarded the Chinook Limelight filly the in-hand championship ahead of her dam, Astral Just A Dream.
STRONG OPPOSITION
Lucy, the inaugural winner of the Irish Horse Gateway foal championship last autumn had some strong opposition in the supreme championship. The Cork magic continued when Jenny O’Driscoll’s mini pony champion Glenard Bumble Bee, with her daughter Laura on board, was called forward for the reserve tricolour.
Entries were also good in the ridden pony rings and Gill Glynn, who selected Sian Blanchfield’s Shannon Bay Star and Finola Hennessy’s Slieve Bloom Barney from the 153cms class as her champion and reserve show hunter ponies, had some interesting points to make.
“They [her champions] were true to type and caught my eye. I see an increase in interest in IPS classes and I think showing puts that polish on children as riders.”
Held on the old turf of Castle Bernard golf course, the ground conditions were perfect and another bonus at a well-run show was an excellent catalogue with no late entries.