The final day of the Kerrygold Dublin Horse Show saw Taylor Vard win the prestigious Higgins and Corry trophies when he took the Grade A championship with Tutur Valley.
Vard was a narrow winner of yesterday's class, his determined bid with the 13-year-old Young Tutor gelding keeping defending champion Paul Darragh pinned back in second place, with less than a second separating the pair.
Peter Charles, runner-up twice in earlier events with Nusria, slipped to third yesterday and so lost his grip on the Higgins and Corry trophies, awarded to the rider and owner of the horse gaining most points in this grade.
Charles and Vard finished their week-long campaign on equal points, but the verdict went in favour of Vard as winner of the final round.
This was a particularly pleasing outcome for Vard, who had been presented with the trophies two years ago, but had to return them when it was discovered that an error had been made by the scorekeepers.
The national novice championships were also decided yesterday and the Army Equitation School continued its winning streak when Capt Gerry Flynn took the laurels with the six-year-old Rincoola Abu, a daughter of Irish team horse, Cruising.
Rincoola Abu is no stranger to the RDS limelight, having won here last year. Her next major engagement is to represent Ireland at the World Breeding Federation championships in Belgium next month.
The five-year-old championship went to an exciting five-horse tussle against the clock in which the pace got progressively faster until Michael Cave, winner of the previous day's qualifier, had the final word with Anthem, an eye-catching bay owned by his aunt, Pam McDowell.
The Grades B and C championship were fiercely contested. Marion Hughes enjoyed an outright victory with Heartbeat. Tom Slattery (Clover Brigade) and Seamus Hayes (Murphy's Son) finished on identical times to take equal second. Robert Power had things all his own way in the young rider championships, with the Co Meath rider taking both the Grades C and D division with Harbour Glen and the Grades A and B with Comet. Power, the only son of former Aga Khan Cup winning jockey, Capt Con Power, was uncontested in the novice class, jumping the only clear.