THERE is food for thought in the fact that the ‘Bannow final’ attracted 13 three-year-olds last Thursday. Considered the premier championship for youngstock with its unique challenge of all types - lightweights, heavyweights, geldings and fillies - pitted against each other, it takes a good horse to stand out amongst the pack in that big Bannow ring.

Three-year-old class entries have been down this summer with a number of factors mentioned ringside; from spiralling costs to some owners now taking in a handful of prep shows before Dublin.

However, the Bannow final is an impressive crown to add to a three-year-old’s resumé, plus it ranks as the most successful for producing future performance horses with the likes of five-star event horses The Deputy and Killossery Jupiter Rising amongst past champions.

All those champions will be recalled next year when this cross-border initiative of the Bannow and Rathangan show committee and supported from Year 1 by long-standing sponsors Galway Crystal and Belleek China - celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Bad weather caused its cancellation one year and in hindsight, considering the disruption to several fixtures last weekend, the sunny south-east once again lived up to its name with just one small flurry of rain sweeping in from the Irish Sea.

The fishing village of Kilmore Quay is just across the fields from the Killag show site, although no amount of fishing for the names of this year’s Bannow final judges could have come up with the creative choice of US vet Brendan Furlong, teamed up with Clongeel Stud’s Edmund Vaughan.

The pair soon got down to business and had no hesitation in changing their preliminary line-up and final order. Remaining at the top of that final line-up was Dessie Gibson’s Cavan Sales buy Sort Code, bred in the Royal County by Hazel Bye. The All Ireland prize money is put up by the host show and Horse Sport Ireland - it was unusual to see no HSI representative at this year’s final - with Sort Code adding €800 to his earnings for his popular Dromara owner.

By the Holsteiner stallion Cormint, his damline is totally traditional as his Coevers Diamond Boy dam goes back to the thoroughbred Political Merger and two-time Irish Draught stallion champion at Dublin: Kildalton Gold.

All the sweeter

In comparison to veteran showman Gibson, Brendan Tobin is a relative All Ireland final newcomer which made his reserve championship place on Model County home ground even sweeter.

His unnamed Lagans OBOS Quality filly, jointly owned with his son Thomas, had already notched up one All Ireland title for the pair, having won the Kildysart final last year and she also took Bannow’s additional prize of €150 given to the highest-placed filly.

John and Julia Crosbie were fresh from another All Ireland filly championship win after their Memory Lane won the three-year-old final at Dungarvan the previous week. They had better luck last Thursday with their other finalist: Tinascolly Magic, by HHS Cornet, bought from his Kilkenny breeder Laurence Hanrahan with the judges swapping the strapping bay and Tobin’s filly around in their final decision.

Fourth place went to Jason Dunphy’s Vivant van de Heffinck gelding Viva’s Star. Last year’s Dublin two-year-old champion is another of the Bannow finalists heading to Ballsbridge next month and also has the lucrative Brian Boru young horse class at Clarecastle pencilled in for his next outing.

Finalists

MJ Kavanagh provided much of the Bannow final horsepower, having bred three finalists including George Chapman’s fifth-placed VDL Corporal gelding. Also moving up in the final order was the second filly in the top-six: Laura Kelly’s Chillux, by Chillout, bred by Jane Darragh who was busy judging the working hunter ponies.

Horse Sport Ireland provided €70 travel expenses to the remaining finalists, who also received elegant ware from Galway Crystal’s James Callaghan. Claiming another piece for his best-turned-out prize was Donegal owner Shaun Doherty for his Glenveagh Viewpoint. The Pointilliste gelding was one of five traditional-breds amongst the 13 contenders, with three owners - George Chapman, John and Julia Crosbie and John Roche - having two finalists apiece.

Bannow veterans can recall 30-plus three-year-olds in previous finals. However no more than the airwaves being filled this week with climate change topics and news of blistering heatwaves around the globe, smaller numbers could become the new norm too in many finals.

On last Thursday though, the day belonged to Gibson whose latest win will feature in next year’s Bannow champions roll call on the final’s 25th anniversary. Second Thursday in July, plan to be there early to beat the traffic and book a good ringside seat for what is already shaping up to be a fantastic event.

Final snippets

  • Weather also played a part in New Jersey-based Brendan Furlong’s travel plans. His flight the previous day had been postponed by three hours with recent bad weather backing up flights along the American east coast but for Adamstown-born Furlong, it was a minor inconvenience. He thoroughly enjoyed his day at Bannow and Rathangan, which, like his local show Adamstown, was part of every summer growing up in Wexford. Having bought last year’s All Ireland champion Bloomfield Watergate from Daphne Tierney, he already had a return visit planned for this year to revisit Bannow before receiving a phone call. Incidentally, that Watermill Swatch gelding recently won the ridden hunter championship on Furlong’s home ground at Adamstown.
  • It took a little persuasion though by the Bannow show president Walter Kent for the first-time judge to accept the engagement. “Walter phoned and asked if I’d judge the All Ireland and I said, ‘Let me think about it!’, said the US team vet at five Olympic Games. Having accepted the invitation, Furlong, accompanied by his sister Ann Cosgrave, thoroughly enjoyed catching up with many old friends on show day, including Herbie Deacon.
  • As a token of appreciation, Furlong made a presentation to Walter Kent of a hardback copy of Benjamin Hardaway III’s ‘Never Outfoxed’. Hardaway’s daughter Ann competed on the US eventing team at the Seoul Olympics with Tarzan and as the perfect finishing touch, the co-judge arranged for Ann to sign the copy of her late father’s book before bringing it to Bannow.
  • Edmund Vaughan was multi-tasking last Thursday as he also had an opportunity to watch the Wido-sired Tankardstown Wilco compete with Seamus Dermody in the Aloga Auctions five/six-year-old championship. The Nabab de Reve son Wido is just one of the Clongeel Stud stallion roster, alongside Diamond Roller and thoroughbreds, including Alignak and Khan. The north Cork stud was home to the famous Carnival Night, bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II. “I was about five when Carnival Night died but there’s lots of photos around the house and all the stories from people talking about him. He’s still turning up in the pedigrees although you’re going back a good way now,” said Edmund. Carling King, fourth at the Athens Olympics with Kevin Babington and Badminton winner and Rio team bronze medallist horse Paulank Brockagh are both from the same Carnival Night line. Telstar was one of the Irish Draught stallions his late father Denis stood and Luke Skywalker was the end of that line. “He died two years ago and that was our last [Draught]. He was a lovely, very kind, old-fashioned type of Irish Draught horse.”
  • This year’s champion was bred by Ballivor Show’s Hazel Bye and the Meath family are synonymous with having bred David Broome’s great Sportsman (Chou Chin Chow). Show secretaries were a theme amongst the Bannow finalists breeders as Viva’s Star was bred by Gearoid Duggan whose sister Fiona is a key member of the Newmarket on Fergus team.
  • Bannow and Rathangan’s powerhouse secretary Liz Freeman found a spare minute to meet the Irish Shows Association’s former president and national secretary Michael Hughes. The committee had invited the popular Galwayman as a guest and he thoroughly enjoyed the day, catching up with old friends. The current ISA president Ray Brady, from Arva Show, was another amongst Bannow’s bumper crowds.
  • Sort Code will be without his regular handler at Dublin as keen skier David Alcorn will be on holidays in New Zealand. With both his Bannow winner and Balmoral young horse champion Spot Light entered for the RDS, Dessie Gibson plans an otherwise smaller team of horses for Dublin this year.
  • MJ Kavanagh bred a trio of horses that had qualified for this year’s final: the Tobin family’s reserve champion, George Chapman’s fifth-placed horse and Daphne Tierney’s withdrawn Bloomfield Waterville.

    • What the judges said

    “IT’s fantastic being here, it brings back so many unbelievable memories and see so many people that I haven’t seen in years and years. I know Walter is an avid fox hunter all his life. Benjamin Hardaway was also a frequent judge at the Peterborough Hound Show which is one of the most prestigious hound shows in the world. And he told me he knew he heard of three Irish fellows who he said had 240 years of hunting experience between them and two were from Wexford: Walter Kent and Jack Lambert.”

    The Model County’s own Brendan Furlong.

    “He was a good stallion. He got race winners on the track, he got eventing horses, he got show jumping horses. Then Mr Lord came afterwards and he also did the same. He got show horses, he topped the show stallions twice, he got a horse that went to the Olympics show jumping and a horse that went to the European eventing championships.”

    Edmund Vaughan recalls the Carnival Night and Mr Lord era at Clongeel Stud.

    Champions round-up

    IF there was a leading breeder award on the day, it would surely have gone to MJ Kavanagh as the Gorey man also bred Rosemary Connors’ middleweight hunter winner AFS Apollo, another by Lagans OBOS Quality.

    The grey went on to stand ridden horse champion, ahead of Nessa O’Sullivan’s Forth Funtime, to claim the Slaney Valley Cup, named in honour of another great Wexford horseman, the late Michael Hickey.

    In the adjoining young horse ring, the champion here was Julie Radden’s two-year-old gelding Master Clinton, by the Cornet Obolensky son HHS Cornet. Declan Daly’s Hayfield Tigger, the foal champion here last year, came back to win the yearling class and the Zebediah gelding duly stood reserve champion.

    Last Thursday’s foal champion was John Roche’s colt by the Draught stallion Lansdown out of the Coroner mare Assagart Faithfully and the broodmare champion was Mary Rothwell’s LVK Lady Marmalade. The Brilliant Lad mare, along with her colt by in-house stallion Greenhall, are amongst next months finalists in The Irish Field Breeders Championship.

    The Irish Draught young horse champion was Martin and Emily Egan’s grey colt, ahead of another two-year-old, Linda O’Byrne’s Skehana Inisfree Lady (Inisfree Rock Chic), the winner of the filly class.

    Corena Bowe’s Cappa Amadeus five-year-old Patrickswell Sherry won the Irish Draught working hunter class and then stood reserve to Jessica Murphy’s Darcy de Chanteloube in the overall working hunter championship.

    In the working hunter pony equivalent, Mia Meyler won the Bannow tricolour here with Tricklebrookes Jaguar, ahead of Kyah Kelly on Moyvilla Melody. Tara Hudson’s Dunbeggan Dreamer was the show hunter pony champion and in reserve was Abbie Shannon’s hand taller Arizona Gold, the 153cms class winner.

    The usual stalwarts did battle in the youngstock classes where the overall in-hand title was won by Barossa Stud’s Rathnaleen Sinatra filly Barossa Irish Rose. Jerry Maloney’s Barryroe Kitty stood reserve.

    Bannow, hosted on the White family’s farm, is a phenomenal show in terms of presentation and planning. The only glitch was non-catalogued entries or sparse breeding details provided for the catalogue. No reflection on a hardworking team whose workload is added to by late entries and by the even more time-consuming trend of entries on the day.