THESE are exciting times for Alyssa O’Neill. On Wednesday, while travelling to Rincoola where she won a section of the four-year-old qualifier, she learned she had achieved a 2.1 in product design from the Dublin Institute of Technology and, in two weeks, she starts working at Horseware in Dundalk.

Happy enough with her own living arrangements in the Co Louth town, the search is now on to find a livery yard for Colacentric who recorded one of only three clear rounds in section B on Wednesday when completing on a score of 313.85 points. O’Neill’s good ridden display mark of 98 can be attributed to the help she receives from Ross O’Hare.

“Colacentric was sourced through PMD Sporthorses and, as I was busy finishing off college after I broke her, Paul McDermott was a massive help in producing her,” commented the Milltown, Co Kildare rider. “It’s he who brought her to the high standard that she is at today and it was he who rode her in the RDS show jumping qualifiers, where they were unlucky not to qualify. I took back the reins for the eventing qualifiers and am fortunate to have such a well-produced horse under me.”

Colacentric, a grey Lancelot mare, was bred in Co Clare by Susan Moloney out of Coney Island Cruise, by Cruising.

Also qualifying for Dublin from this section was Steven Smith with Virginia Maguire’s homebred thoroughbred gelding Handsome Starr (309.75), who is by Ballyash Stud’s German-bred stallion September Storm, a son of Monsun.

Ciara Power, who, in 2014, won the five-year-old young event horse class at Dublin on the highly-regarded OBOS Impressive, posted a narrow win in section A to qualify her own and partner Johnny Widger’s Poynstown Stonehaven (319.10). Now the hard part will be not to confuse this bay gelding with the same owners’ intermediate eventer Stonehavens Poynstown who they likewise purchased from Widger’s brother Robert!

Wednesday’s winner is by the Westphalian stallion KEC Maximum Joe out of Co Mayo breeder Oliver Conway’s Olympic Lux mare Scardaune Superior. He lowered the narrow gate at five but had an excellent ridden display score of 103.5, which was just marginally ahead of Stephen Kelliher’s Harlequin du Carel gelding Caraghs Harley Master (103) who took the second qualifying slot on a total of 318.45 under D.J. O’Sullivan.

Also heading to the RDS, after finishing third on 312.90, is Paul Donovan’s Chacoa gelding A Sportsfield Rio who was ridden by Daragh Byrne.