Showing classes:Native ponies took centre stage at the RDS yesterday morning, with Denise Norton's Edenmist Pride Of Thieves taking the championship ribbon when judged best of six Connemara classes.
The home-bred four-year-old, which is a son of the successful stallion, Prince Of Thieves, had no problem claiming the honours in the stallion class and went on to take the championship ahead of Robert Fallon's two-year-old filly Cashelbay Mary.
The winner is out of the Ballydonagh Bobby mare Garryhack Pride, which has produced no fewer than six champions.
Four other championships were decided in the showing rings yesterday.
Jeannie Taggart's Chasecroft Zebedee took the riding pony tricolour ahead of the much beribboned Rhos Royal Velvet, while Kieran and Maireád Ryan's Captivation, winner of the four- and five-year-old division, was declared champion small hunter.
Bill Bourns's Craughwell, Co Galway, stable was unbeatable in the cob classes, with the four-year-old lightweight winner So Famous taking the championship ahead of stablemate, De Monkey Business, winner of the heavyweight division.
There was plenty of drama in the riding horse classes, with Dubliner Joanne O'Hagan being taken to nearby St Vincent's hospital after a fall in the second of the two sections.
Despite his relatively advanced years, the 13-year-old gelding, the Favour Royal, a former mediumweight champion with Richard Iggulden, allowed the occasion to go to his head yesterday and, after spending quite some time dancing on his hind legs after the gallop, eventually fell over backwards.
Although he avoided landing on his rider, she landed heavily and was obviously in pain before being removed from the ring by the ambulance crew and taken to hospital for precautionary X-rays.
The class, which had attracted 23 entries, was eventually restarted and Co Mayo producer Deirdre Scott steered Edward Fitzgerald's Freelander to the red ribbon.
That gave the Scottish-bred seven-year-old his ticket for the championship, but the judges went in favour of the small class winner, Sophie McNeice's Whalton Bengal Tiger, with Freelander in reserve.
The young event horses, which will be tackling the cross-country course in the main arena this morning, went through their preliminary judging stages yesterday afternoon.
In the four-year-olds, Stuart Crawford's Amacuzzi goes forward to today's jumping phase with a 0.7 point advantage over Michael McCann's Seapatrick Orchard County, while Christina Kavanagh's Russeltown Bay Princess and Alice Kehoe's Westwinds El Divo were inseparable after yesterday's five-year-old judging.