THE first of this year’s qualifiers for the Balmoral Star of the Future performance horse championships was held last Saturday at The Meadows Equestrian Centre where there was a runaway winner in the five-year-old class and a very close result in the six and seven-year-old section.

The judge for this year’s series is Gillian Kyle whose younger winner was the Irish Sport Horse mare Alland Daisy (92.5 marks out of 100). Ridden by Yvonne Whiteside for her Co Down owner-breeder, Allison Mercer, the bay daughter of Ramiro B scored consistently highly throughout, receiving 28.5 marks out of 30 for scope and 19 out of 20 for potential.