“YOU had a Badminton breeder, two Olympic horse breeders and the family of this year’s Irish Grand National winner. Not bad for a little show by the lake in West Clare!” commentator Simon Clancy remarked afterwards about the presence of Jenny Glynn (Capels Hollow Drift), Tommy Fitzpatrick (The Duke of Cavan, Rio), Patricia Hassett (MP Imagine If One, Tokyo) and the Blake family from Kilkee (Lord Lariat), at the West Clare Horse Show.

And that lake in Tullabrack is where another future Rio Olympic horse in MHS Going Global decided to take a swim in during one memorable show.

Just one sample of the wealth of horse breeding and characters in this corner of the Banner County, where the annual show made its welcome return after a two-year pandemic gap.

What West Clare and Longford, held the following day, have in common are dynamos for show secretaries. For Bridgette Coghlan, having both a Breeders Championship and Cavan Elite Sales qualifiers at the show, are a major boost to the day’s classes which began with the young horse section.

Compared to earlier shows, entries were very good and several owners were getting in a pre-Dublin outing with their youngsters. Denise Colebrooke and Patricia Hoey’s three-year-old champion Knockout lived up to his name by winning the overall young horse title for owner James Meere.

The Tyson chestnut was first spotted at Dublin, where he was the winning foal along with his Ghareeb dam Parkmore Evita in The Irish Field Breeders Championship and again by the Meere brothers James and P.J at Clarecastle, the scene of his All Ireland colt foal final victory for owner-breeder Patrick Wafer.

Bought over the phone the evening after his All Ireland win, the brothers and their 90-year-old father Patrick, who was at the ringside last Saturday, have had quite a wait with him since for a show outing.

West Clare Horse Show secretary Bridgette Coghlan presents the Dr. Chris Coghlan Cup to Sheelagh Barry whose Harlequin du Carel mare Darwin was the champion broodmare \ Susan Finnerty

A return to Dublin is next on the cards for Knockout, whose dam and full-sister had qualified for the Breeders Championship at Charleville the previous Sunday.

Tom Casey, the owner of the reserve champion young horse Finance Arranged, has a more local target for his two-year-old filly that he bought at Gorey the previous weekend: the All Ireland filly final on home ground at Kildysart.

A winner three times this year for previous owner Terry Keogh, the Financial Reward bay out of a Kennedys Clover dam, was shown for Casey at Kilrush by Alan Russell, whose family owned that great show horse sire, Big Sink Hope.

Rehy High Society, another Atlantic Stud resident, is the sire of the three-year-old filly winner, Retreat Melania, owned by Michael Blake from Kilkee. His son Pat owns this year’s Boyle Sports Irish Grand National winner Lord Lariat, the horse that received a heroes welcome when paraded through the seaside town after his historic victory.

Sheelagh Barry’s Harlequin du Carel mare Darwin, a previous young horse champion here and now in foal to Bertram Allen’s Cascari, won the broodmare championship, ahead of Kathleen Pearse’s Colin Diamond mare.

Edel and Dominic Curtin’s Corgrigg Duchess, a well-grown Castlefield Kingston filly out of their good servant Corgrigg Dancer, won the combined foal class and then the foal championship. In reserve was Patricia Hassett’s Lagans OBOS Quality filly that found a buyer at the show.

Cheers! Tom Jackson’s Le Lion d’Angers silver medallist Capels Hollow Drift finished 16th on his Badminton debut this year and her West Clare Horse Show team mates of Nikki Johnson, Simon Clancy and Bridgette Coghlan had a surprise presentation for his breeder Jenny Glynn at West Clare Horse Show last Saturday \ Susan Finnerty

Crowded ringside

Sally Parkyn and Maurice Coleman completed judging this year’s Breeders Championship qualifiers, which had included Armagh, Athlone and Charleville, at West Clare. With the triangle format now thankfully dispensed with, the qualifier is a better watch for spectators and drew a nice crowd ringside to see which combinations took the final places.

The judges were keen to emphasise that their picks from the two new eventing and show jumping sections, were in no particular order.

A pair of greys booked their Dublin appearances with their respective foals. The sole Banner County combination of Saturday’s four was John Mulconroy’s Diamonds For Douglas. The Ard VDL Douglas mare, out of a full-sister to Coevers Diamond Boy, was shown with her light grey Zirocco Blue colt.

Liam Lynskey’s Dublin qualifying trail took him to Kilrush where he qualified his Balmoral Irish Draught mare champion DS Bounce With Me Baby, by the late Moylough Bouncer that had stood at his Derryronane Stud. Another resident stallion Cruising For Chics is the sire of her chestnut filly foal at foot.

At the last two RDS Breeders Championship qualifiers, the eventing section has proved the most popular and qualifying here was Limerick owner Dermot O’Brien’s Stonepark Imp, by former world number one-ranked stallion Master Imp and her Lagans OBOS Quality colt foal.

Kieran O’Gorman’s journey from Clonakilty with his Brookfield Miss Lux and her Munther filly foal paid off when they too qualified. 13 years ago, Brookfield Miss Lux was the winning foal with her Cavalier Royale dam Kildysert Royale in that year’s final for O’Gorman.

The judges day wasn’t quite over then as the same pair also judged the three-year-old loose jumping class, which had an added bonus of places in the Cavan Elite Sales. Here, their top-three were Vincent Meaney, Noreen Hayes and Geraldine McMahon’s contenders by OBOS Quality, Simba and Lagans OBOS Quality respectively.

Like other shows, West Clare will continue to look at its schedule and see which classes are sustainable, although the small-but-mighty committee seem to have found the concise range of classes that works best for them. And if breeders and exhibitors continue to support the show, it’s steady as she goes for West Clare.

Can I jump them bales, John?” John Mulconroy’s Zirocco Blue colt qualified in the Breeders Championship show jumping section with his dam Diamonds For Douglas \ Susan Finnerty