Supreme Hunter Championship: Frances Cash made it the magnificent seven at the RDS yesterday morning when she claimed her seventh supreme hunter championship with Peter and Louise Curling's seven-year-old lightweight Hochmagandy to break the Dublin record.
"I've got the record now and I must admit I did get a lump in my throat when they called out the supreme," Cash said afterwards.
Cash's success came at the expense of last year's victor, Ann O'Grady, who this time was demoted to the reserve berth with the four-year-old Ringwood Dunbeacon, which had finished behind Hochmagandy in the weight cup but did at least take the four-year-old title.
Hochmagandy, which has a unique meaning known only to those of the Scottish persuasion or their closest friends, was bought as a four-year-old at the Tattersalls Ireland August 2000 sale when he was knocked down to the Curlings for 11,000 guineas.
The thoroughbred son of Mandalus, which was bred to race, made his point-to-point debut at the Brosna Harriers fixture in Tullamore towards the end of March, but failed to feature and was eventually pulled up five fences from home.
"That wasn't his job", owner Peter Curling said after yesterday's triumph, "so we rang Frances". Cash took over the horse 10 weeks ago and turned it into a swan that went all the way in the Ballsbridge main arena yesterday to lift Dublin's supreme accolade.
Curling, who had become the human equivalent of a box walker - equine parlance for a horse of a nervous disposition that paces round its stable - during the judging, was still on a high from his 19-year-old son Sam's win with Áine Dubh in the Dawn Milk Hurdle at Galway on Saturday. But yesterday's success was summed up in one word: "phenomenal".
From Gould's Cross near Cashel in Co Tipperary, Curling is Ireland's leading equine and landscape artist and is currently in the throes of finalising plans for a major exhibition in London towards the end of next month, his first one-man show in the British capital for almost 15 years.
Hochmagandy and Ringwood Dunbeacon shone out in the lightweight division and it was no surprise when the pair were called in for the weight honours and again for the overall title. Some ringside pundits felt that the Limerick horse had the edge over his Tipperary rival, but the judges were never in any doubt and Godfrey Deacon of sponsors Bewley's Hotels faced the fierce rays of the midday sun to present the giant silver trophy to Cash aboard Hochmagandy.