LIFE-long Suffolk Horse enthusiast Simon Juby achieved a heartfelt ambition yesterday as the seven-year-old stallion Euston Malachite took top breed honours on day one of the Suffolk Show.

Duncan Brodie

LIFE-long Suffolk Horse enthusiast Simon Juby achieved a heartfelt ambition yesterday as the seven-year-old stallion Euston Malachite took top breed honours on day one of the Suffolk Show.

Mr Juby has been showing Malachite - based at Euston, near Thetford, and owned by the Countess of Euston - for four years and has been longing to achieve a championship with him as the stallion was the last horse to be selected for showing by his grandfather, the late Jack Juby MBE.

For the last two years, Malachite has won the stallion championship at the Royal Norfolk Show - the trophy for which is named after Jack Juby - and will be going to complete the hat-trick next month.

However, championship success at the breed's home county show had previously proved elusive, but Malachite put that firmly to rights yesterday by claiming first the best stallion title and then the overall supreme championship.

“It's a dream,” said Mr Juby as the result sunk in. “It has been an ambition to win with this horse as he was the last one by grandfather came to look at before he died.

“Although he has been champion stallion at the Norfolk two years running he had never won title at the Suffolk. Now it has all come at once - and it has been well worth the wait.”

There was another delighted camp at the show yesterday as the three-year-old filly Samford Topaz, owned by George Paul from Wherstead, near Ipswich, took the female championship and reserve overall.

The home-bred filly - who is now in-foal - showed her promise by winning the best new filly class as a two-year-old at last year's Suffolk Show.

Yesterday, she went one better, beating off strong competition which included the four-year-old mare Eyke Samphire, last year's supreme champion, and the five-year-old Eyke Thistle, eventually placed reserve in the female champion - both owned by the multi-championship winning Fleming family from Eyke, near Woodbridge

Although Topaz's success was not a complete surprise, having already won at the Woodbridge and Hadleigh shows this year, owner Mr Paul and head groom Gemma White, who showed her in the ring, were delighted at the result.

Mr Paul said of his groom: “It is her first season of showing Suffolk horses, and a very good job she has made of it.”

Besides the class wins for Thistle and Samphire, the Flemings also won the best foal award with their colt Eyke Mistrel.

Thistle and Samphire also stood reserve in the award for the best pair of horses owned by the same exhibitor, with the winners being the three-year-old Withersfield Joy and two-year-old Horkesley Park Grace, owned by Bunting & Sons of Horkesley, near Colchester, and both sired by the day's main winner, Euston Malachite.