One week after the oldest show on the road rolled out of town, the RDS is preparing for another long-running grandstand performance. Robin O'Brien Lynch reports.
Simon and Garfunkel soft- rocked the house in the RDS show ring 10 days ago, but next week's Dublin Horse Show promises to be a little less lighter in the air and a little more rattle- your-jewellery.
First staged in 1868 on the lawn of Leinster House, the Horse Show has long since left that parade ring to prancing ponies of a different sort.
This year the usual gala line- up is promised, particularly as three of Ireland's equestrian Olympians will be competing on the Irish Samsung Nations Cup team.
Cian O'Connor, Jessica Kurten and Billy Twomey will be using the Friday competition to test their pre-Athens form as the hosts attempt to land their first Aga Khan trophy since 2000.
At yesterday's official launch, RDS chief executive Mr Michael Duffy announced the biggest prize fund to date of €510,000, including a €10,000 diamond ring for the winner of the show's most fiercely fought competition, Ladies' Day.
In a break from what the good lords and ladies of 1868 might have envisaged for their agricultural showpiece, "Wheelie King" Patrick Bourny will be bringing his Motorcyclists of the Impossible daredevil routine to the Horse Show.
Frenchman Bourny, holder of 11 world speed records, and his band of acrobatic bikers will be pulling wheelies and jumping buses every day except Friday.
The Horse Show runs from next Wednesday to Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. It also features Punch and Judy shows, live theatre, a jazz band and almost 300 trade stands selling hats, tack, saddles, antique furniture, wine and wellies.