It’s that time of the show season already when the All Ireland championships start to be decided, and the first of this summer’s equine champions is Michael and Rachel Lyons’s Kilmastulla Newmarket Knight.

He won the €6,000 feature showing event at Bannow and Rathangan’s 70th anniversary show last Thursday. This final began as a cross-border initiative 20 years ago, with original sponsors Galway Crystal & Belleek China and is now part of Horse Sport Ireland’s showing championship series, with HSI and the local committee providing the prize money.

Bred in north Cork by Brian Daly, whose father Billy stands the champion’s sire Newmarket Ven-ture at their Newmarket Stud, the winner is a result of the Daly’s use of thoroughbred mares to cross with their continental sires.

Out of the Presenting dam and dual point-to-point winner Ballymacs Present, the gelding was sold to the Tipperary couple last year.

“I was thrilled to win it with Daphne and Jane’s [Bradbury] horse [Bloomfield Waterside] in 2017 but it is nice to own, well, half-own, this year’s champion,” Michael said afterwards. I bought him as two-year-old and when I got him, Rachel loved him and demanded I sell her a half share.”

Julie Radden’s Master Jack Brown was the reserve champion from John Chugg and Walter Kent’s 19-strong final and this traditional-bred has attracted a lot of interest from prospective customers. Another proud breeder at the ringside was Derek Copy, who bred this Kings Master bay. Third was Dessie Gibson’s Harlequin du Carel-sired Action Man, last year’s Dublin two-year-old reserve champion.

Liam Cotter and Rebecca Monahan were the judges at the next All Ireland at Barryroe last Satur-day when John Burchill’s Union Hall Elusive, bred in Headford by Seamus Leahy, won the yearling colt/gelding final.

Reserve young horse champion recently at Charleville, he won out ahead of Trevor Horgan’s Scrapman gelding out of another thoroughbred dam, this one by Shernazar, and PJ Lehane’s Womanizer gelding. Local sponsors Irish Yogurts, JT Motorbikes and Hon.

Stephen Evans-Freke sponsored this final.

All-Ireland champions

Yearling (Barryroe): 1, John Burchill’s Union Hall Elusive (Elusive Emir. Breeder: Seamus Leahy); 2, Trevor Horgan’s by Scrapman, bd. owner; 3, P.J Lehane’s by Womanizer, bd. owner)

Three-year-old (Bannow and Rathangan): 1, Michael & Rachel Lyons’s Kilmastulla Newmarket Knight, by Newmarket Venture. Breeder: Brian Daly); 2, Julie Radden’s Master Jack Brown, by Kings Master. Breeder: Derek Cope); 3, Dessie Gibson’s Action Man, by Harlequin Du Carel. Breeder: Thomas Minogue)

Bannow and Rathangan

Broodmare: Margaret & Des Jeffares’s Ballykelly Hi Hope (Big Sink Hope)

Foal: John Roche’s by Lansdown

Young horse: John Roche’s Assagart Emperor (Emperor Augustus)

Ridden horse: Daphne Tierney’s Bloomfield Greystones (Crosstown Dancer)

Show hunter pony: Edwina O’Connor’s Brandon Zimbabwe

Working hunter pony: Laura Widger’s Granstown Coat Of Many Colours

Overall in-hand pony: Jerry Moloney’s Jula Dark Sensation (Rosedale Oberon)

Donkey: Hugh Deegan

Barryroe

Broodmare: Seamus Lehane’s Ballard Peaches & Cream (Kings Master)

Foal: Kieran O’Gorman’s Brookfield Rodger (Munther)

Young horse: Eoin Jennings’s Gairdin Mor Spirit (Spirit House)

In-hand pony: Julianne Williamson’s Hilin Hibiscus

Mini pony: John Burchill’s Star Attraction

Ridden pony : Saoirse Keohane’s Breenybeg Dolly