FROM their new yard at Nutts Corner, Jamie Smyth and Ryan Anderson produced Bloomfield Valhalla to win the ridden horse supreme championship in Cavan last Sunday evening as the Northern Ireland Festival drew to a close.

Ridden here by Britain’s Polly Coles for her mother Debbie Harrod, the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding first came to prominence in these pages in 2016, when champion four-year-old hunter at Balmoral and the Tattersalls July Show. As his then connections of Daphne Tierney (owner) and Jane Bradbury (rider) already had a four-year-old middleweight aimed at Dublin, they entered Bloomfield Valhalla in the heavyweight class, where he finished second.

The Lux Z bay, who was bred in Co Tyrone by Ted McKenna out of Dunroe Diamond Clover (by Flagmount Clover Diamond), was then sold to Jayne Ross, under whom he won twice at HOYS.

The reserve supreme was the amateur ridden and veteran horse champion, Tullyroan Cracker, who was partnered by his owner, Mary Deirdre Kinsella, chairperson of Waterford Riding Club. The 18-year-old chesnut ISH gelding by Diamond Cracker, who was bred in Co Tyrone by Margaret Gilpin, is a half-brother to the Cavaliere gelding GHS Calvaruise (CCI3*-S).

Also from Co Waterford, Vincent Phelan bagged the first qualifying ticket for the racehorse to riding horse class at Dublin in August when winning the open class, and championship, here on Friday with Askforbigmoney. An eight-year-old by Ask, the bay gelding fell twice and pulled up once in three starts in point-to-points in the 2021/2022 season.