THE imposing stallion Gortfree Lakeside Lad was crowned champion working hunter at the 2019 Dublin Horse Show under Linda Murphy who had partnered the grey to victory in his performance Irish Draught class at the Ballsbridge showgrounds in both 2017 and 2018.

Fans of Sean Barker’s home-bred son of Gortfree Hero will be delighted to know that, following the Covid-enforced break, Murphy and the now 10-year-old are returning to defend their title in Ring 2 on Sunday.

Among their opponents in the older medium/heavyweight class will be Jenny Williams and Gneeve King William who, like Murphy and Gortfree Lakeside Lad, cannot take part in the performance Irish Draught championship as they, too, are previous winners – even if that success came in Co Meath not Dublin 4.

Winners of both the flat and performance Irish Draught championships at Balmoral in May, Williams and the eight-year-old Treanlaur Rocky gelding were reserve in the Connolly’s Red Mills champion of champions amateur hunter final at the Tattersalls Ireland July show and they are due to compete in the Sportsman hunter section on Saturday evening.

At Tattersalls, Williams and Gneeve King William were third in the Irish Draught working hunter class behind Claire Liddle and her 12-year-old Ballytrim Midnight Dancer mare Ballytrim Molly, who won the EI110 (Amateur) class at Tullymurry last month, and Katie Crozier’s five-year-old Gortfree Hero gelding, Mountview Silver Fox.

On day two of the Co Meath show there was a 2023 Royal International Horse Show open working hunter qualifier which was won by Rachel Moore riding her own six-year-old Mermus R gelding Ballymacbrennan Meridos. Jamie Smyth won the first two classes in the working hunter section that day on half-brothers owned and bred by Karen King, the six-year-old Yeats gelding Diamond Yeats (novice) and the 12-year-old Bright Diamond mare, Dilly Diamond Queen (restricted).

Smyth and King took the workers’ championship here with Diamond Yeats having also claimed the title at Balmoral with the five-year-old My Diamond Solitaire (by Balief Guy).

The Furnell siblings, Amelia and Dominic, won two of the three working hunter classes at Charleville, with the former claiming the championship with her six-year-old Womanizer gelding Brownstowns Blue Steel (with whom she has competed in three CCI1*-Intro classes this year). William McMahon won the working hunter title at the Showing Show of the Year in Mullingar on the high-class middleweight gelding Gleann Rua da Vinci, a six-year-old bay by Camillo VDL.