THE new ‘show on the block’ was the North Tipperary Show, not to be confused with Nenagh’s Agricultural Show that traditionally takes place on August Bank Holiday Monday. A separate event, held at David Maher’s Roscrea Equestrian Centre, it was organised by Jennifer Haverty who saw a demand from breeders, leisure and local riders for such a show.

David and Charlotte Kirkpatrick made up for lost show time by taking in Barnadown, Charleville and Roscrea on a three-day tour and won the young horse championship here with Redwood Bear (Barely a Moment).

The broodmare champion was Tom Newell’s Kilcahill Gemini (Financial Reward) is a full-sister to Williamson family’s Spotlight, the All Ireland yearling champion at Charleville the day before. Another with a winning link was Danielle Cusack’s foal champion Brittas Captain Rio (Clonaslee Captain Cristo), a full-brother to the winning foal in The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship three years ago.

Daphne Tierney’s Grey Goose (Gortfree Hero) was the ridden horse champion in well-supported ridden horse classes and reserve was Jenny Williams’ Gneeve King William (Treanlaur Rocky. Ciaran Quigley).

His was another of the delightful tales of the short show season, going on to win at the Irish Draught performance final at Lambertstown and taking the reserve Draught performance title at Balmoral, where the Quigley family travelled up to watch him and their day was crowned by a photo with champion trainer Willie Mullins.

In the pony classes, where many youngsters wore yellow ribbons in memory of their friend Tiggy Hancock, the champion was Goldengrove Sunrise, ridden by nine-year-old Aoife Brennan. Which, as Aoife’s mother Aine, pointed out was “extra special as it was the place where Goldengrove Stud began.”

The smart addition to the Roscrea schedule was jump-cross classes, which attracted lots of local entries. That may well be the key to future shows.