Last Distelfink wins HOY 6 year Old
What a wonderful win for the 6 year old chestnut gelding by Distelfink out of Banana Perfume by Green Perfume. The horse was bred by Katherine Gillally and her mother Robin with the intention he might be a good eventer, but his jumping ability is so amazing that it is no wonder that his best performances have been in the show jumping ring. He is a big strong horse that Katherine admits has a mind of his own at times.
When Katherine started focusing on her eventers, she offered the ride to Nigel Horton so he could carry on jumping for the rest of the season. What a great choice culminating in the pair’s championship win at the Horse of the Year show.
An added bonus was that second to Oscar in the Championship was Giggles a bay mare by BT out of Gabrielle by Distelfink ridden by Kim Best.
The win kept up the Longspring Stud record of having produced a champion by one of their stallions for each of the HOY shows in just about all of the last 15 years.
Oscar is the last Distelfink so it makes the win particularly special for the Vallances and of course his delighted owner who is looking forward to getting back to jumping with Oscar in the spring. The combination also had a 4th in the Horse 1.30 class on Thursday.
Katherine has video footage of his win which we hope to post on this website soon.