Derry Rothwell claimed the breeding world's supreme accolade at the RDS yesterday when his mare Greenhall Cailin Deas and her filly foal by Cruising took the 1998 breeders championship from among a high-class field.
The Tinahely, Co Wicklow, producer bought Cailin Deas three years ago after she had won the all-Ireland two-yearold championships at Kildysart. The filly's showing career took off with a vengeance then, as she cornered 19 championships the following year, including the all-Ireland three-year-old title in Belturbet.
Now five and with the Rothwell Greenhall prefix added, Cailin Deas has only been beaten once in the showing ring. Even then she was only demoted as far as second. She was bred in Clonakilty, Co Cork, out of John Fahey's Bassom Lady, herself a prolific winner in showing circles, and is by Mister Lord.
Cailin Deas had opened her RDS account on Wednesday morning when she won the heavyweight broodmare class. Yesterday's triumph, however, was the highlight of the mare's 1998 campaign, with the April filly foal by Cruising assisting in the task.
Just to boost the foal's market value, her sire only just missed out on a double clear in the Aga Khan Cup with a single mistake in the first round.
Rothwell's breeding enterprise got a further lift when Ann Lyons's Weavers Web filly Flowing River, which Derry Rothwell bred in Tinahely out of Barronstown Gir, took the prestigious Laidlaw Cup as supreme champion young horse. Earlier, Flowing River took the yearling tricolour and overall filly championship.
Diana Warrington's Moulin Rouge, which took the Anthony Maude cup on Thursday as champion threeyear-old, followed on yesterday by winning the Pembroke cup for the champion home-bred, in the capable hands of Curragh trainer and producer Gerry Stack.
But the tables were turned in the Connemara classes when the British-bred pony, Rosenaharley Laurinda, swept the boards for her Dorset owners Blanche and Ruth Miller.
Shown by Kevin Roberts in both the ridden and led classes, the seven-year-old mare had the beating of all her Irish rivals in the two championships.
The lovely grey is by Atlantic Swirl, which was bred by Jimmy Jones in Carlow by the prolific sire The Fugitive. Atlantic Swirl was himself responsible for three champions at Britain's major end of season fixture in Olympia.
The performance championship went to Mr and Mrs Kehoe's The Frenchman. The home-bred five-year-old by Paris Lights had won its lightweight class for jockey Jill Spring before going on to take the performance tricolour in Simmonscourt yesterday afternoon.