THE plentiful daffodils were looking their best in the sun at Wexford Equestrian on Wednesday for the first qualifier in this year’s 2018 Stepping Stones to Success League.

Also looking well, and, more-importantly, catching the eye of the judges was Joan O’Connor’s Greenhall Granuaile who won the TopSpec four-year-old class under a very busy Sarah Ennis. While some people like to buy foals, O’Connor had selected the Derry Rothwell-bred grey before she was even conceived.

“I told Derry that I wanted to buy the mare’s first filly foal and, after two colts, she had this filly by Frankfort Boy,” said the delighted owner who is a big fan of Rothwell’s breeding operation.

The mare she was referring to is Greenhall Indicator (by Limmerick) who was bred in Co Down by Lorraine Wallace. Indicator was a multiple champion in the show ring as a young horse, taking the 2008 fillies’ title as a three-year-old in Dublin where she was also reserve in The Irish Field breeders’ championship in 2013 when shown with her second foal, a colt by Mermus R.

Now named Brooklodge Merryman, that bay won an RDS young event horse qualifier and was second in the Belleek China all-Ireland three-year-old championship at Bannow & Rathangan. In 2015, Greenhall Indicator had a colt by Querlybet Hero who the Rothwells will campaign in RDS loose performance qualifiers this season.

O’Connor exhibited Greenhall Granuaile as a yearling, two and three-year-old but, as the grey is just over 17.1hh and the owner is not over tall, she passed the task of showing the filly over to Clive Corrigan.

After the mare was broken by J.J. Bowe and a rider was being sought for her performance career, it was Corrigan who suggested Sarah Ennis who, in a complimentary way, describes Granuaile as “savage”.

The owner, who has ridden the mare herself, says of the grey: “She is a delight to ride. She is really well balanced and I see her future lying in eventing. She will do one or two more legs of the Stepping Stones league and, after a break, I’d like to see if we can get her qualified for Dublin. However, if that doesn’t happen I won’t worry as I see her as an event horse for the future.”

Sasha Stewart judged the dressage phase on Wednesday and had Greenhall Granuaile topping her leaderboard on a score of 59.5 points with the Heidi Hamilton-owned and ridden Johan-Some next best on 52.5.

Both horses recorded clear rounds but, after their efforts in the Derby arena, the gap between the pair had decreased to just three points as Ian Fearon and J.P. Sheffield awarded Hamilton’s Lexicon gelding 153 while Greenhall Indicator picked up 149 points.

The winner over the Dereck Hamilton-designed jumping course on a score of 158 was Seamus Drea’s unnamed Ars Vivendi gelding. He was ridden by Linda Murphy whose younger brother Brendan broke the Shires Equestrian Products five-year-old winner, another mare, Kilcandra Vanessa.

TOP SCORE

That dark bay daughter of Orestus was bred at their Kilcandra Stud in Co Wicklow by Clare and Vinny Cousins out of Kilcandra Lily de Noche (by Orbis). They sold Vanessa last summer to Aoife Quigley who gave her a couple of months’ grass before bringing her in for the winter during which, when the weather permitted, she did a bit of combined training and some training shows.

“I’ll complete the Stepping Stones series with the mare and take it from there,” said Quigley, a Co Wicklow veterinary surgeon who, for the past two years, has run her own Quigley Equine Dentistry practice.

“I’m not sure if we’ll do the RDS qualifiers but I plan to event her later in the year. She has a super attitude, loads of jump and I like her a lot. While she is very straightforward, I’d like to thank Luke Drea for all the help he has given me with her.”

Only sixth after dressage on a score of 52, Quigley and Kilcandra Vanessa were runaway winners in the Derby Arena, scoring a massive 161 points. The next highest score was the 158 points attained by the aforementioned Murphy and Susan Fitzpatrick’s home-bred Womanizer gelding Castle Howard Casanova who completed the day in second place. They qualified for the four-year-old jumping championship at Dublin last August.

The Dinan Cascaletto mare Loughlins Pub, ridden by Daniel Alderson for Richard Ames, topped the rankings in the dressage phase on 57 points but a fence down show jumping proved costly as they slipped to overall fifth.

Following their rides at Wexford Equestrian, Sarah Ennis and Clare Lambert were quickly on the road, bringing their Stepping Stones horses home before heading to Dundalk Stadium where they finished second and third respectively in the Horseware Event Riders Challenge Race.