SUPREME CHAMPION AT THE ROYAL SHOW, 2005.
For the second year running, a Percheron mare was Horsehage Supreme Champion In-hand Horse or Pony at the 2005 Royal Show, held at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. Willingham Chrystal is a nine-year-old barren mare belonging to Gordon Bailey of Willingham, and won a £1000 prize, memento and a sash. Reserve was the Connemara stallion Castle Comet, and the other two contenders for the championship were the riding pony brood mare Ninfield Millionaires Dream and the three-year-old hunter Hillocks Rustic Gold.
The previous day was the fifth time Chrystal has won the Percheron Championship at the Royal Show. This was her third championship of the season in only three outings. Previously she won the Female Championship at the Percheron Breed Show, held within the Royal Showground during the course of the Royal Show, and the Supreme Championship at the Royal Norfolk Show. She was shown there by her groom, Pat Carmen, as Mr Bailey was judging the turnout classes.
At the Royal, to win the Supreme In-hand Heavy Horse Championship and qualify for the final Championship, she had to beat three other mares who were champions of their respective breeds. These were the Shire, Cotebrook Loch Maree, the Clydesdale, Deighton Miranda, and the Suffolk, Eyke Opal.
Last year’s overall Supreme Championship winner was Owen Garner’s grey Percheron mare Hales Uni. Uni now has a foal by Owen’s black stallion Ryan’s Day Stewart, an import from Canada, but Owen had to leave her at home because he needed room in his transport to bring Ryan’s Day Stewart qualify for his stallion premium.
‘They will never give the championship to the same breed two years running,’ said Mr Bailey. But that’s exactly what happened.
Surprisingly, both Hales Uni and Willingham Chrystal come from the same Cambridgeshire village of Willingham, where Gordon Bailey’s family have bred Percherons for three generations. In fact the two farms are only four hundred yards apart.
A handsomely dappled grey, Chrystal is by Three Holes Grenadier out of Willingham Lady, who was three times champion at the Royal Show. Willingham Lady was full sister to Willingham Ernest, who sired the famous mare Willingham Phoebe.
‘The best Percheron brood mare there has ever been in this country,’ is Gordon Bailey’s description of Willingham Phoebe. Sadly, Phoebe died, but this wonderful bloodline is now continued by her offspring. They include Willingham Axl, who was supreme champion stallion at this year’s Percheron Breed Show. (There is no overall championship in this show, so he didn’t compete against Chrystal.) Phoebe was also the grandmother of Willingham Flo, reserve champion to Chrystal at the Royal Show.
‘The overall championship at the Royal was extremely difficult to judge,’ said Mr John Peacock, one of the four judges. ‘There were four of the best in the world. The marking was so close. Chrystal is an extremely good example of the breed.’
Gordon Bailey is totally thrilled with Chrystal’s success. ‘She has won a championship at every major showground where there are classes for Percherons,’ he said. ‘She is one of the best show Percherons I’ve seen, and her record proves it. She has only been beaten once as a senior and she’s been champion every time since.’
Rosemary Cooper.