NOW in its 38th year, the Breeders’ Championship was the brainchild of the late Thady Ryan. It was a novel concept: there are broodmare classes and then there are classes for foals - how about a championship that combined the mare and foal to be judged as one unit?

The roll of honour of past champions is both a ‘Who’s Who’ of showring greats and a method of tracking the changes that have taken place within the Irish sport horse herd.

Historically, the most successful performers to date have stemmed from the early years when we saw the likes of the Army Equitation School’s Killossery (Clover Hill), the five-star event horse Tipperary Liadhnan (Fast Silver) and Parkmore Night (Carnival Night), the future sire of Parkmore Ed, a Burghley winner and British team bronze horse at the Hong Kong Olympics, in previous finals.

The news sinks in with Danielle Cusack that Hallowberry Destiny and her foal have won The Irish Field Breeders' Championship in 2018 \ Susan Finnerty

Continental bloodlines are now far more prevalent and types of horse bred for a specific market have been refined.

The archaic and endearingly optimistic sentence of ‘likely to make a top-class show jumper or eventer’ in a sales catalogue or advert rarely proves true. Horses are now being purpose-bred for a sport.

More recent Breeders’ Championships have been split by the RDS into eventing and show jumping categories. For the eventing section, a recommendation was made that foals should have a minimum of 60% thoroughbred blood.

Its early days yet to see what this further refinement will produce in terms of hard results from eventing and show jumping performers.

Does the championship appeal to every breeder? No. Most show jumping broodmares are out in their paddocks and rarely, if ever, see a showring. However, in the past two years, there’s been an increasing number of new faces and performance bloodlines in this section.

The dream of that Breeders’ Championship win is as strong as ever amongst this year’s owners. Just watch the winners’ reactions as the results are announced for a measure of what winning Thady Ryan’s brainchild championship means to the champions.

And so, to this year’s round-up. Kieran Ryan deputised for Philip Copithorne at the first qualifier; for the remaining three, Copithorne and Denis McGrath decided which combinations made it to Ring 1 this year.

Lurgan replaced Armagh as the traditional first qualifier, followed by Athlone, Charleville and West Clare.

The judges for the Dublin final? Marc Hahne from Germany’s ‘Rider City’ Verden and Jacques Verkerk from The Netherlands.

Each section of the Breeders’ Championship offers a first prize of €3,000. The Lynn Aldridge Trophy, named after the late Sligo-born Irish Horse Board Director General, is now awarded to the winner of the show jumping section. A new trophy, also presented by The Irish Field’s Leo Powell, is presented to the eventing champions.

Any past winning mares in this year’s line-up? One in Richard Drohan’s Golden Moments for the eventing final but there is no former winner in the show jumping section, meaning a new queen will be crowned.

30-plus years in the waiting: The Irish Field contributing editor Leo Powell with Richard Drohan and his daughter Lucy with their 2023 Breeders' Championship eventing section champions: Golden Moments, bred by Mosie White and her News Anchor foal \ Susan Finnerty

Pedigree-wise, it’s a pretty even spread of damsires and sires of this year’s foal finalists with Cavalier Land and Vancouver being the only sires with foals in this year’s final.

Multiple winning owner or first-time appearance, to win the Breeders’ Championship is a dream of these Dublin finalists. Read about them overleaf.