ALL EYES ON BANNOW & RATHANGAN SHOW

ONE of the most popular showing classes for young horses takes place at the Bannow & Rathangan Show in Killag, Duncormick, Co Wexford on Thursday week.

With a prize-fund of €6,000, the Galway Crystal/Belleek China All-Ireland Championship for three-year-olds is among the most lucrative in the country and attracts the best stock each year.

Qualifiers have been taking place countrywide and approximately 25 are expected to line-out for the final, won in 2017 by Daphne Tierney’s Bloomfield Waterside. By Watermill Swatch, the gelding has since gone on to win under saddle with Jane Bradbury and will be one to watch at the Dublin Horse Show.

Meanwhile, the ridden hunter classes always attract a strong entry and many use it as a good warm-up for the RDS. A new addition in recent years, the working hunter classes for horses carry a total prize-fund of €2,500.

Elsewhere in the jumping arena, the €2,500 Pettitt’s Novice Show Jumping Championship for five- and six-year-old horses is an important fixture on the calendar. It has been won in the past by riders such as Francis Connors (pictured) and Ger O’Neill.

Following this class will be the Grand Prix, which is a leg of the SJI National Grand Prix League. This carries a prize-fund of €5,000 and was won in 2017 by Connors.

There will also be a carriage driving display and hunt chase which acts as a qualifier for the RDS.