KILIAN Murphy’s 2021 Eventing Ireland season was badly impacted in the first half of the year by Covid-19 restrictions but he rounded it off in style at Punchestown (3) last Saturday when completing on his dressage score in the EI110 (J) with Ballinaclough Caruso (36.3 penalties).

Murphy had only three previous EI outings this year and two of those were on his father Peadar’s Connemara gelding. The pair finished third, with time penalties in both jumping phases, at Blackstairs (3) before just losing out on second place at Grove (2) where they also jumped a double clear but this time were too fast across the country!

Having finished fifth in the six-year-old class at Grove the previous Sunday on their debut at this level, Rebecca Coughlan and her father Michael’s Dantes Fernhill Lima had one pole down show jumping to finish second on 43.

As Murphy (17), who is in his Leaving Cert year at Good Counsel College, New Ross, is now going to concentrate on his studies, Ballinaclough Caruso is on the market. The 2010 Fairyhill Tomboy gelding, who was purchased late in 2019 from Polly Holohan, was bred by Edmond Crotty out of the Glenayre Silver Fox mare, Camross Lass.

Howth’s Amy Ennis Crosbie and Limestone Spartacus brought up a double in less than a week when adding victory in the 19-runner EI100 (J) here to that at Grove (2) the previous Sunday.

Crosbie (15), who is in third year at Santa Sabina, has done all the home work with the bay gelding (who is said to be out of a thoroughbred mare) who was purchased last October as a just-broken five-year-old.

She was having problems with his show jumping but now gets help from her aunt, Sarah Ennis, with that phase, while attending Melanie Wrynn at Ardeo Sport Horses for cross-country lessons. If she is not able to travel, John Carey, at whose Baskin Sport Horses yard the horse is stabled, is always prepared to give her a hand.

While Limestone Spartacus did roll a pole on Sunday, Crosbie held a commanding lead over her 18 rivals after dressage and held on to win on a total of 30.3 penalties. Eliza Jane Queally and Eliza Kavanagh completed on their identical dressage scores of 32 with Queally and Unbelievable Honour, who were making their EI debut as a combination, finishing closer to the optimum time to place second ahead of Kavanagh and Whitetree Sky.

Fourth success for Nestor

Local rider Tom Nestor and his father David’s Freddie landed the four-runner Equipe Saddles Ireland EI110 (P) to notch up their fourth success of the year. They completed on their dressage score (28.5) as did the runner-up, Georgina Pettit with Ballyerk Black Beauty (29.3).

Nestor has had a great season since taking over the ride on the well-known Freddie this year. He and the 16-year-old bay gelding haven’t finished outside the top six in 11 Eventing Ireland outings. As a member of the Kildare Branch of the Irish Pony Club, Nestor partnered Freddie to win the Intermediate section of the IPC/Connolly’s Red Mills qualifier here at Punchestown in late July.

Only five of the 12 starters in the Equipe Saddles Ireland EI100 (P) managed to record clear show jumping rounds and the first three on the final leaderboard had a fence down apiece.

The winner on a total of 38.3 was Co Tipperary’s Rosie Mae O’Grady riding Deirdre Loughran’s home-bred 17-year-old Westside Mirah gelding Wilderwood Storm. This combination was placed on all five EI starts this season, winning previously at Blackstairs (3).

Both Sarah Curry, who finished second on Pixie Magic (39), and Charlotte Hathaway, who was third with Colemanstown Fred (39.8), were penalised for an error in their dressage tests.

Rosie Coad recorded her second win in three starts on her mother Carol’s Connemara mare Murvey Katie in the seven-runner Equipe Saddles EI90 (P). The Wicklow Pony Club member and the five-year-old Coosheen Stormboy grey completed on their dressage score (32.8), while the only others to do so were the second-placed pairing of Lauren Dempsey and the vastly-experienced Fernhill Ruby (34.3).