The future's bright for Irish breeders

Irish breeders and producers again dominate these championships, with future stars shining, and a stallion continues to make his mark

- JENNIFER DONALD , SARAH RADFORD

IRISH contenders proved a force to be reckoned with once again on super Sunday at these world championships.

The day began with a clean sweep of the podium in the five-year-old championship in which an 11-strong jump-off over Bernard Mathy’s 1.30m track decided the honours.

Six of these came from Ireland and it was Mikey Pender and the Bravo Hughes home-bred gelding HHS Ocala, a son of Urano De Cartigny out of Hera Van’t Roosakker (by Wandor Van De Mispelaere), who triumphed with an electric double clear. They were 0.5sec faster than silver medallists Niamh McEvoy on the smart bay stallion Boleybawn Alvaro (Dominator 2000 Z x Crown Z), bred and co-owned by Ronan Rothwell. In third was last year’s champion Ger O’Neill riding another Irishbred Ballyshan BF Super Hero (Celtic Hero BZ x Lux Z), owned by Martin Egan and bred by Gary Doherty.