Newmarket-on-Fergus kicked off the agricultural show season in the west when a sunny day brought out the crowds. Entries were steady, although the problem of exhibitors entering on the day, with the knock-on effect of missing details from catalogues, is an ongoing issue for many show secretaries.

Now in its third year in its magnificent setting near Dromoland Castle, the young horse classes attracted a keen Banner County ringside following. Tiernan Gill won the first class with his Cavan Sales purchase Flogas Pablo and the yearling filly winner was John Mulconroy’s Young Carrabawn daughter, one of last year’s The Irish Field Breeders Championship finalists.

Her stable companion Flogas Pablo was Bill Bourns and Conor Wixted’s reserve champion choice

William McDonnell Jnr. won the two-year-old gelding class with a horse by the Nenagh family’s late Colin Diamond. Kildysart owner Tom Casey’s Lancelot filly Coolmeen Winalot claimed the other class. Gina Heaps’s homebred gelding by the Heraldik son Herald III won his class en-route to claiming the young horse title and while Tiernan Gill won the other three-year-old class with the Jim Tempany-bred Flogas Step On It. Her stable companion Flogas Pablo was Bill Bourns and Conor Wixted’s reserve champion choice.

Paul O’Malley won back-to-back Connemara championships with Glenlo Lady, ahead of Lorcan Glynn’s stallion Knightsbridge Prince, in reserve

Agribusiness graduate Wixted, who recently took up a new job with ABC Nutrition in nearby Shannon, was pleased with the day, saying: “The standard throughout the day was pretty high and notably in some of the young horse classes, where it was neck and neck in one or two classes. We were looking for well-produced, conformationally correct animals that moved well,” he explained about his and mentor Bill Bourns’s criteria.

Paul O’Malley won back-to-back Connemara championships with Glenlo Lady, ahead of Lorcan Glynn’s stallion Knightsbridge Prince, in reserve. The Melican family won the miniature horse championship with Silver-smith Chase My Swag with Christina O’Brien’s Pinetrees UK Legends Beautiful Belle as reserve. Tara Hudson’s show pony champion Chagford Leon reversed last year’s supreme result with Cathriona Glynn’s 2018 victor Yealand Pilgrim.