Foreign-bred horses featured strongly during yesterday's national championships in which two of the three finals were won by horses bred outside of Ireland.
Following the four-year-old championship on Saturday, in which the French-bred mare Jalouise Louvo emerged as the winner for owner Phyl O'Halloran, Irish horses were yesterday beaten into second place in both the Grades B and C, and the five-year-old championships, with just the six-year-old Bellevue final being won by the Irish-bred Millfall Hill.
Owned by William Smyth, Millfall Hill provided champion national rider Tom Slattery with victory in the six-year-old decider, when overcoming a field of nine runners in the jump-off with an unbeatable time of 32.56 seconds.
The win also saw the son of Clover Hill gain automatic qualification for next month's World Breeding Championships in Lanaken, Belgium.
A German-bred stallion, by Macho, emerged as the victor in the Grades B and C championship for rider John McGuinness. A nine-way jump-off in this final provided McGuinness with the best position of all when last to go with the nine-year-old entire, Macuzzi.
Three representatives from the Army Equitation School had seen Lieut Shane Carey and Lismore Clover in a good position when taking an early lead in a time of 31.70 seconds, but that target time was well within reach for McGuinness and his Mullingar Grand Prix winner which sliced over half a second on the clock for the coveted Rockbarton trophy.
The Sportsman five-year-old final was also dominated by another foreign-bred import, Where's The Money. Ridden by Damien McDermott, the Dutch warm-blood gelding opened the championship decider with a winning formula which could not be matched by his Irish counterparts, five of which also gained qualification for next month's championships.