Historically we are a horse show,” said Gorey Show secretary Stella Jones, summing up the Model County fixture’s main attraction to breeders and exhibitors, who turned out in droves last Saturday.

Despite torrential rain the previous night, the Clonattin site’s sloping ground made for perfect going on a dry, breezy day.

Mare and foal classes were the best seen so far this year and with a Breeders Championship qualifier back on the schedule, there was keen competition to qualify for Dublin.

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Judges Pat Hutchinson and Alistair Pim sent forward Margaret Jeffares’s Ballykelly Notalot (Lancelot), Richard Drohan’s Lucy’s Princess (Power Blade) and Patrick Wafer’s Parkmore Evita (Ghareeb) with their respective OBOS Quality, Move To Strike and Tyson foals at foot from the eight entries.

Both judges placed great emphasis on the mare with Hutchinson, who has a Capri Van Overis Z three-year-old half-brother to Lanaken gold medalist Uppercourt Cappuccino at home, looking for foals with the potential to produce a high performance athlete, for showjumping “or Badminton and Burghley.” Pim was impressed by the quality of the foal’s limbs: “and they [limbs] all pointed in the right direction.”

Parkmore Evita, the 2013 young horse champion here, had another excellent day winning the open broodmare class and her Tyson colt was the foal champion, ahead of Jill Acton’s Dignified Van’t Zorgvliet filly.

COMPETITIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Numbers were way up too on earlier shows in the young horse section and it was good to see several owners bringing their youngsters for an educational day out at a show.

Again, the three-year-old classes were the strongest and Kings Master had a treble in the gelding class with all three prizewinners by the late Slyguff sire, including the eventual champion Master Jack Brown.

While his Kildare breeder Derek Cope had no bid for this one as a foal at Goresbridge, the gelding and his full-sister were snapped up last December from their field by Julie Radden and it was no surprise to the ringside onlookers when the official judges Joan Mahon and Wendy Phipps selected this increasingly rare traditional-bred as their overall champion. Champion already at Bandon, this quality bay quickly doubled up with the Cork young horse title the following day.

In reserve was Bloomfield Distinction, Daphne Tierney’s OBOS Quality two-year-old. This one is a half-brother to the Dublin and HOYS winning middleweight Bloomfield Tetrarch and both were bred in Nenagh by Paul Seymour.

Tierney’s home-bred Bloomfield Manuscript (Financial Reward) graduated from last year’s young horse championship here to winning the Tommy Brennan Memorial Cup, now presented to the four-year-old hunter champion, with Jane Bradbury on board.

The Tierney team had another clean sweep at Gorey, as their Balmoral ladies hunter champion Bloomfield Eloquence (Watermill Swatch) stood as the overall hunter champion. Libby Cooke and Walter Kent selected Angus McDonnell’s middleweight Statesman (Ricardo Z) as their reserve.

Pat Loughlin’s The Peaky Blinder (Rockrimmon Silver Diamond) continued his winning streak with the ridden horse title, ahead of Nicola Perrin’s riding horse winner Ballarin My Grace (Kings Master).

More Gorey champions included John Bracken’s Lady Hattie (Agherlow) and Pat Wafer’s reserve Gweenbarra Clover (Gentle Diamond) in the Irish Draught section. In the pony rings, there were big wins for Eileen Furlong’s Thistletown Olympia (Olympic Lux) and Emily Widger’s Ardfry Rahara in the ridden and in-hand pony sections. The working hunter champion was Aoibhinn Ruane’s purebred Connemara Clonad Rose (Gwennic de Goariva). The championship reserves were Emily Widger’s Bunbury Suarez, Veronica Hogan’s Ballinacarrig Ayra and Lucy Kelly’s Camtra Bucks Fizz.