Hunter Championship

It was always the late Paddy Downes’ wish that neighbour Trudi Deja would bring her West Clare find to Dublin but no-one had a bigger surprise than his owner when Mossy won the supreme hunter championship on Saturday morning.

“We just went for the craic! I thought we’d go home on Friday (after his heavyweight class) and I hadn’t even enough horse feed with me, but Kieran Ryan gave me a bag of feed,” said a delighted Deja, who bought the Watermill Swatch grey as a two-year-old from his breeders Tim and Mary Kelly in Cree.

“You dare to dream and sometimes the stars align. The heavyweight class was the one that Paddy always wanted to win at Dublin. All his family were standing in the rain waiting for us in the yard when we got home on Sunday night” said Deja who has had ‘quite a lot of offers’ for the grey, produced this season in England by his Horse Show rider Helen Baker.

“I’d love to say thank you to my husband Michael who keeps dishing up the money! “

It was another year of traditional-breds dominating the supreme hunter as Kieran Ryan stood reserve on board Maria Melvin’s lightweight hunter champion Glenkeeran Dance Inthedeep, by the five-time Dublin winner Crosstown Dancer.

From a good eventing family and already competing in young event horse classes, this chestnut was also the four-year old champion. Daphne Tierney, who finished the week as the leading exhibitor, won the middleweight title with her Jane Bradbury-produced Bloomfield Bespoke, by Future Trend. Another successful Wicklow owner was Derry Rothwell whose Financial Reward-sired Greenhall Push Button was the mare champion.