A last-minute purchase proved a real winner at the RDS yesterday when Wendy Trevithick rode the former Austin Quigley horse The General to claim the coveted supreme hunter title, leaving hotly tipped favourite Coincracker in reserve for Dick McElligott.
Trevithick had two top contenders for the Dublin honours in Redwood Kestrel and Candle Mist. Redwood Kestrel, winner of both the four-year-old and reserve supreme championships at Balmoral in May, never made it as far as the RDS after being sold to England in the build-up to the show, while Candle Mist's Dublin campaign ended in the veterinary paddock when the five-year-old Candle King gelding was returned to his stable unshown with a burst blood vessel in his eye.
This left the Carlow-based English woman without a runner at the start of Horse Show Week, but she was quick to snap up Austin Quigley's debutante The General before the weight cup judging on Thursday. The grey had won its class on opening day with Quigley in the saddle, beating last year's Laidlaw cup winner Inter Exchange.
Trevithick viewed the four-year-old as a potential champion and, after striking a deal with Quigley, rode The General to win the medium-weight cup shortly afterwards and then went on to take both the four-year-old and supreme 24 hours later.
The Trevithick victory was a devastating blow for Dick McElligott, whose alliance with the top producer Diana Gilna netted Dublin reserve supreme ribbons with Bogart in 1993 and Curacao 12 months later. McElligott had hoped that the five-year-old Coincracker was the horse that would finally win him the elusive title but, once again, it was a case of bridesmaid rather than bride on the big occasion.
The programme change that spread the hunter classes out over three days did not suit everyone, particularly those with four-year-olds that found the judging marathon too taxing. It also meant divided loyalties as the young stock championship was taking place in an outside ring almost simultaneously yesterday morning, causing a mass exodus from the main arena immediately after the announcement of the hunter title.
The young stock championship was always destined for the North after the Magees from Portadown took the yearling tricolour yesterday morning to add to the two Northern cup winners from Thursday's final judging in the two- and three-year-old ranks.