Dublin Horse Show Day 5- Showing Classes – Champions On Parade

Now that the last of the horseboxes and lorries have arrived home and the Irish horse world takes a proverbial day off to recover from Horse Show Week, its a good opportunity to catch up on more Dublin champions.
As always, the parade of Dublin champions before the Rolex Grand Prix is the ideal opportunity to watch some of the best of Irish breeding on display. And that took place before the most unusual of Grand Prix classes when Laura Kraut and Bisquetta’s sole clear sealed their win.

Another top-three result for an Irish Sport Horse for the second year, (following GRS Lady Amaro and Mark McAuley’s runner-up place in 2024), as James Kann Cruz and Shane Sweetnam finished third. On hand to watch, during his annual ‘Dublin holiday’ was the Kannan grey’s breeder Patrick Connolly.

PJ Casey’s Dublin supreme hunter champion Raglan Road – one of several horses sold at this year’s show – took pride of place in the parade. Bred in New Ross by Larry Hanrahan, Raglan Road was spotted by John and Julia Crosbie as a youngster. He placed third for the Wexford couple in the 2023 All Ireland three-year-old final at Bannow & Rathangan before they wisely gave the future heavyweight champion a year off to mature.

Snapped up by PJ, we first saw the new pair on the show circuit at Athlone and Longford this summer, when the HHS Cornet gelding was champion on both occasions, in preparation for Dublin.
The reserve champion was Nicola Perrin’s homebred Ballarin Rosalin, by Radolin out of the Nash Me dam Ballarin Rosewood. This footperfect chesnut mare won two more titles: four-year-old and hunter mare champion.
Broodmares too took their place in the parade and it was easy to spot this year’s champion and reserve mares. “Ladies love a grey’ as the old adage goes and this year’s Coote Cup champion is John Roche’s Assagart Hopeful, a full-sister to his Dublin young horse champion in 2017: Assagart Lord Lancer. He was the foal at foot when their dam Assagart My Only Hope won the first of two Breeders Championship finals at Dublin.

This was the third year in a row that the Foulksmill family won the broodmare championship at Dublin, having won it the two previous years with Assagart Fairytale.
The accolades continued to rack up for Dessie Gibson, whose Silvano mare Drumbo Bluebell, bred by Catherine Gorman, was reserve to Assagart Hopeful. This 11-year-old won the opening middle/heavyweight mare class while the eventual champion was the stinted mare class winner. Bubbles – Drumbo Blue-bell’s foal by the thoroughbred Sir Lando – won both the colt foal and foal with a thoroughbred parent classes and not surprisingly, the legendary Dromara showman was back in the main arena, this time to be presented with his leading exhibitor award.

Still on broodmare news, this year’s Futurity winner was Equine Evolve’s six-year-old mare Juana Moussarderie. This class is designed to earmark potential performance broodmares and draws its contenders from the top fillies and mares throughout the week’s loose performance, four, five and six-year-old classes. In a very tightly-scored result, Eddie Moloney’s Rhea-Duela (El Bar-one III Z x Toulon) finished as reserve.
In this year’s Croker Cup class for thoroughbred stallions, when one overall champion is selected from the five contenders in 2025, the winner was Paddy McCarthy’s Alhebayeb. A 15-year-old by Dark Angel, the eyecatching grey was shown by his son Patrick and for each of the sporting owners, Ring 1 is a unique shopwindow to exhibit their stallions.

The final showring champion crowned at Dublin was John McDaid’s Tul Na Rí, a six-year-old bred in Co. Donegal by Caitlin McKinney. By the Cornet Obolensky son Glynnwood Cornet, the grey gelding was produced by Gwen Scott to place second in the five-year-old and over working hunter class.
The tables were turned – as can happen in any championship when judging re-starts – as the winner of that class, Martine Nolan’s Quite Content stood re-serve.
This chesnut, ridden by Shane McKenna, is another with a performance pedi-gree as he is by Conthargos and out of Fire Fly Summer, by the Western Prob-lem son St Finian.
“He was lovely, just unfortunate to have had one fence down but I’d take him home!” Michaela Bowling, who had also co-judged The Irish Field Breeders Championship, remarked.
The dream and reality of spectators and buyers in attendance at the 2025 Dublin Horse Show.