ONCE again Charleville put on an exceptional show, packed with both tricolour-festooned champions and, by Sunday afternoon, crowds at this atmospheric north Munster event.

Now one of the few remaining two-day agricultural shows in Ireland, the organisation of this show is top class and Elaine Goold, now in her second year as secretary of the horse and pony section, was outstanding. She learnt, of course, from the best in Eleanor Fleming and has formidable back-up in an outstanding team of experienced stewards, many capable of judging the classes themselves.

Saturday is devoted to ponies and if there was a theme at this year’s show, it was of the next generation forging ahead. The earliest example of that was in the very first championship of the day won by Imogen Greene, who had won the Charleville mini championship five years ago with the delightful Welshie Mountain Ash of Glendhu.

“‘Bobby’ is now with the Wheltons,” explained Imogen’s mother Margaret, who owns last Saturday’s show pony champion Harwent Moonraker.

A sign of the times in the show pony world is a combined class for all three heights and so the second pony - Tessa Gunn’s Myrrormeere Miss Precious - duly stood reserve champion.

Apart from schoolmaster ‘Bobby’, another of the Whelton family’s team is former Royal Windsor winner, Whiteleaze Secret Temptation. Reserve mini champion here last year, the part-bred Welsh mare, with owner Orla Whelton’s daughter Stephanie on board, went one better last Saturday to win the Taffy Cup, inscribed with many successful IPS riders’ names.

The reserve mini champion was Rachel Lane’s mannerly cradle stakes winner Dubarry and jockey Amber Lane also won the ‘next size up’ championship for starter stakes ponies with last year’s reserve supreme champion Barkway State Affair. Henry Myers stood reserve with another all-rounder: his mother Sandra Barnwell’s Zelston Cymbellene who he also show jumps and won the under 10 combined training qualifier for the Irish Pony Club championships with.

Six years after his dam Waterglades Gemini won the 143cms show hunter class for the Greene family, her son Waterglades Overthemoon obliged again in the same class for his delighted owner-breeder Marian Judge. The smart piebald then advanced to the supreme championship by winning the show hunter pony title with Annarose Scott on board.

Reserve went to Ella Connolly and her consistent Twyford Captain Morgan, last year’s starter stake champion here.

Second championship

The list of supreme championship eligibles grew after the working hunter pony classes. Following the late course builder Peter Molloy, renowned for his Charleville tracks, incorporating several banks, is a tall order, but Lisa Kelly won widespread praise for her courses.

Annarose Scott won her second championship with another 143cms winner in Goldengrove Juliet, bred and owned by her mother Claire. Reserve went to Aoife McSweeney’s smart dun Lislee Lucy from the 153cms class.

Charleville’s ridden Connemara and working hunter pony entries were dented by the clash with the RDS qualifier at Scarteen. However, there was a worthy ridden Connemara champion in Shanbo Rory. Reserve last year for his owner Sarah-Jane Sinnott, an engineer from Schull whose hobby is her two Connemaras, she bought him sight unseen from the UK as a ‘Covid project’.

Champion at Dublin in 2016, he has since done Riding Club, hacking, swimming in the harbour and “covering mares!” Supreme at Bandon on their previous outing, he will bypass Dublin to go to Clifden.

“I’d love to go to Dublin but I’ve chosen Clifden as Rory has never been there and the last time I was there was in 2007 when I won with Gleann Rua Native, who sadly passed away in 2017.” Reserve went to Olwyn O’Regan’s Hillside Twilight, a prizewinner in the morning’s in-hand Connemara classes.

There the champion was Seán Ó Conaire’s I Love You Melody three-year-old colt Ballywilliam Melody, whose dam Cashel Bobby was the Charleville in-hand Connemara and supreme pony champion five years ago.

Martin O’Sullivan’s Active Beauty was the reserve Connemara ‘bridesmaid’ again this year and also completed a back-to-back double in the Horse Sport Ireland Connemara mare class.

The same dedicated cluster of owners who support pony breeding and Welsh pony classes, were joined by two new Charleville champion faces. Edward Flaherty’s traditionally bred Marco, a Connemara-thoroughbred cross by Brocklodge Buster, was the in-hand champion, ahead of Jerry Moloney’s broodmare Alices Firefly and her stable companion Menai Miss Melda was the Welsh pony reserve to Elizabeth Hatton’s Section C home-bred Banroc Isadora.

Supreme honours

Saturday afternoon’s supreme pony championship, with the day’s champions gathered for the Joe Carroll-sponsored finale, is quite a spectacle. The combined ranks of visiting UK judges John Cookson, Polly Mallender, Zoe Moore Williams and Paul and Helen Starkie chose Goldengrove Juliet and Whiteleaze Temptation as their overall supreme and reserve champions.

“She’s by Holyoake Czar, my grandfather’s [Sean Maher] Welsh Section B, who we sadly lost last October aged 31. We sold Juliet to Orla Whelton from Clonakilty as a foal and bought her back as a three-year-old,” explained Claire Scott.

The mare spent several years with a Newmarket family before returning to Ireland.

“Annarose has absolutely adored this pony from the day she got off the lorry, she has so much personality and gives her absolute all. They won on their very first outing to the Northern Ireland Festival the April after she arrived and the pair are hopefully going to Dublin to complete in the 143cms working hunters.

“It’s the combination’s last year so Annarose’s 11-year-old sister Emily will take up the reins next. The UK judges were very complimentary and have encouraged Annarose to contest some HOYS qualifiers so hopefully we will get over to the BSPS championships in August.”