DUNGANNON owners Tom and Lynn Spence recorded an across-the-card double on Saturday with their Michael Cave-ridden Gortshalgan winning the 1.30m speed at Connell Hill while their Colin Halliday-partnered KIEF Craigs Master landed the EI90 at Glaslough (2) on his debut.

Before commencing his career over coloured poles, the now 12-year-old Verdi gelding Gortshalgan was a very successful show horse, both on the flat and over rustic fences, for the Spences and, had it not been for Covid-19, the five-year-old KIEF Craigs Master would have followed the same route.

The very attractive bay gelding comes from the second major crop of Irish Sport Horses by the British-bred thoroughbred stallion Craigsteel and is out of the Kings Master mare Madame Noir who is a full-sister to RRC Black Magic (CSI4*). With his dam, he qualified as a foal for The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship at the Dublin Horse Show in 2016.

Tom Spence explained how they came to own the horse. “I bought him off a video as a two-year-old from his Co Cork breeder, Kieran Fahey, who we have come to know over the years, and I also have his two-year-old half-brother by Womanizer who is a much bigger horse.”

Used to riding towering show horses, Lynn Spence refers to KIER Craigs Master as “wee”, although he is a good 16.2hh. “I broke him at home and got him going with the plan being to show him under saddle last year. As Covid-19 put paid to that, I just produced him along, bringing him to local jumping shows and schooling cross-country.

“He went to Colin in late January/early February time and Colin really thinks a lot of him as the horse has not just ability but a great attitude to his work – he loves jumping. Although we are in no rush to sell, there has been a lot of interest in the horse, especially since Saturday. Whatever, he won’t be going showing now!”

On his dressage score of 31.8, KIEF Craigs Master won the 25-runner EI90 by a single point from the Cate O’Neill-ridden seven-year-old Oke Boy mare Shanaghan Grace.

Dropping down a level since her seasonal debut at Maddybenny in May, Jenny Nixon saw off 18 rivals when recording an all-the-way success in the Amateur division with her nine-year-old Cruise On Harley gelding Coolmount Cruise. On their second start of 2021, Anna McErlean and the Connemara gelding Raford Jack, a 10-year-old by Stonewall, notched up win number two of the campaign in the Pony section.