Frances Cash wrote herself into the record books yesterday when she produced and rode her fourth Dublin supreme hunter champion. The giant 18-hand Formidable, which Ms Cash and her stepson Ned found at the Goresbridge Sales last September, had been hotly tipped to take the title in Ballsbridge after notching up the Balmoral and Cork double, and the trio of British judges had little difficulty in concurring with Formidable's ringside supporters yesterday morning.
The Caesar Imperator gelding, which Ms Cash was campaigning for British owners, Tony and Julie Lockwood, had already claimed both the four-year-old and supreme crowns at Balmoral and Cork, and yesterday's Dublin tricolour was the icing on an already rich cake for the Co Kildare producer.
Ms Cash claimed her first Dublin supreme in 1983 with Standing Ovation, which went on to win at the Horse of the Year Show in Wembley. The heavyweight Overture took the title in 1986 and Ms Cash made it a hat-trick eight years ago with the medium-weight Glengarriff.
"I've been looking for this horse for 10 years," Ms Cash said after yesterday's victory. "A good heavyweight is very hard to find, but this one rides like a 14.2hh pony."
The historic Dublin win was a particularly welcome end to the 1997 campaign for Ms Cash after a period of ill-health that had culminated in a hernia operation last March to repair internal damage from a fall last year. Two weeks after getting back into the saddle, Ms Cash rode Formidable to take the ultimate honours at Balmoral.
With a clean sweep of the major Irish titles, Formidable will probably now be sold. It was bought from Ms Cash last November.
But while Frances Cash was celebrating Formidable's triumph, last year's supreme champion was left languishing in the back row.
Wendy Trevithick's grey medium-weight, The General, took the Dublin title 12 months ago in Austin Quigley's name even though it had been bought by Ms Trevithick 24 hours earlier, so she was keen for a second crack at the honours.
The 1975 champion, Gralla, had returned to defend his title the following year for Fiona Kinnear, but although the horse duly headed the line-up, he was given the title "champion of honour" to allow Tom Moloney's Rainbow through as the official supreme winner. The 1997/98 double had seemed well within Wendy Trevithick's reach yesterday, however, when The General was called in to take his weight cup, but even the reserve supreme was denied him when lightweight champion Ballingowan Conquest followed Formidable home for owner Ann O'Grady in a repeat of the four-year-old championship standings.