Lynskey Engineering hunter championship

OWNER Daphne Tierney and rider/producer Jane Bradbury once again combined to win the Lynskey Engineering hunter championship at last weekend’s Tattersalls Ireland July Show which, as usual, was run in association with the Ward Union Hunt and Rolestown Show to raise funds for St Francis Hospice.

There would have been no little satisfaction on the part of Tierney and Bradbury when their 2021 Balmoral supreme champion, Bloomfield Distinction, stood ahead of the Shane McKenna-partnered Mongorry Cormac in Sunday’s heavyweight class. The pair had clashed at Balmoral in May and while they stood in the same positions in their class at Balmoral Park, there was a different result in the heavyweight championship in the Main Arena where Morgorry Classic took the title with Bloomfield Distinction standing reserve.

There was a disappointing turn-out of just five for the lightweight class were the honours went to the six-year-old Golden Master gelding Gone To Ground who was ridden by Brian Murphy for English owner Olly Stiley. Here Yvonne Pearson partnered her own Cairnview Redwood Guy, an eight-year-old Loughehoe Guy gelding, to place second.

The middleweight class was strongly contested and there was one very delighted winner in Catherine McDowell who took the red on board her own 12-year-old Kings Master gelding Its the Kings Speech. Co Galway’s Kate McMahon finished second with her six-year-old Spirit House gelding Woodfieldfarm Baloo whose dam is the multiple Dublin champion, Woodfield Valier.

As there were such huge entries for the show jumping section of the show, it was decided there wasn’t time to hold the hunter championship in the Main Arena on Sunday. While this was disappointing from a prestige aspect, it probably suited the riders better as there were fewer distractions for their horses.

Also, it is doubtful that they would have galloped them in the same way and certainly Bradbury got a great response from Bloomfield Distinction.

There was little surprise when this five-year-old OBOS Quality 004 gelding, who was bred in Co Tipperary by Jim Seymour out of the Glidawn Diamond mare, Glidawn Delight, was announced as champion. McDowell seemed more surprised than others when she was beckoned into the reserve slot on Its The Kings Speech while Nicola Perrin took the four-year-old title on Susan Tennant’s lightweight Radolin gelding, Ballarin Shanalin.

The Jimmy Ryan memorial perpetual trophy was presented by his daughter Judy Duffy to Jane Bradbury.