The Leonard family of Newcastlewest in Co Limerick was in celebratory mode last night after scooping the coveted Bewley's Hotels supreme hunter championship in the rain-soaked Ballsbridge main arena yesterday morning with the four-year-old lightweight, Ringwood Deacon.
Bought at the Goresbridge sales for 6,000 guineas in Co Kilkenny last autumn, the seven-eighths-bred son of Rimilis was making only his fourth appearance in the showring.
Second on his debut in Bandon, Co Cork, in May, when his 80-year-old owner, Michael Leonard, said the youngster was "very green", the gelding went on to win at the Leonards' local show in Newcastlewest, before going through the card at Dublin.
Having topped his lightweight class on Wednesday morning to book his place in yesterday's championship, Ringwood Deacon was facing a strong challenge from the title-holder, Cariad McAlpine's Castletown, which had gone on to stand reserve supreme behind the heavyweight Cashmere 12 months ago. Now six, Castletown certainly put his best foot forward, but it was the younger horse that got the nod for the weight cup.
Co Antrim producer Sam McAteer's Knightsbridge was steered to the heavyweight honours by the owner's partner, Sheelagh Wilson, while the Scots-bred Westinghouse, which had already taken the mare championship for Doreen Allison, picked off the medium-weight cup for James Aird to make it a clean sweep for the four-year-olds.
Continuing the RDS tradition of announcing the four-year-old champion before the supreme meant that there was no doubt where the overall honours were bound, and the Leonards were already celebrating a foregone conclusion as soon as Ringwood Deacon was called forward to collect the Galway-Greer Cup as champion four-year-old.
The three weight cup winners and reserve lightweight Castletown had all been in the running for the supreme, but the three senior judges had no doubt about their champion, and Ringwood Deacon took the best of the silverware, with the medium weight and mare winner, Westinghouse, taking the reserve for Scotland's Doreen Allison, owner of last year's champion thoroughbred stallion, Accondy.
The ladies' hunter championship turned into a walkover for Banbridge owner Michael Lewis's five-year-old Amiro gelding, Hemmingway, winner of the mediumweight division, when the lightweight winner Happy Valley was withdrawn after becoming unsettled. Wanda McIlwaine's Lord Of The Dance, medium weight champion last year, stood reserve.
Both the young horse cups on offer yesterday also went to Northern producers from Co Down. Crossgar Stanley Mateer's Contractors Golden hopes by Big Sink Hope took the morning's two-year-old championship, while the three-year-old title went to Banbridge owner John Donaghy, whose Kilcotty Kim by Toravich topped the line-up for handler Sam McCormick.