THE chesnut Destination Street brought up a hat-trick of victories when landing the Nupafeed Supplements thoroughbred class at Wexford Equestrian on Wednesday.
Owned by brothers Thomas and Patrick Byrne and ridden by the latter, the six-year-old Thewayyouare gelding had just a 2.1 lead over the Watermill Swatch stallion KMS Timeless after Liam Maloney had judged the dressage phase.
However, that margin increased following the pair’s appearance in the Derby Arena where Dag Albert and Ian Fearon awarded Byrne’s mount 144 points to win on 196.9, while the year younger KMS Timeless picked up 139 points to finish second (189.8) under joint-owner, Cathal Daniels. Leah Kent partnered Luke Doyle’s home-bred eight-year-old Fruits Of Love mare Shirley Baby into third place (184).
“I’ve two horses in the international at Ballindenisk but I might get back here with this fellow next Wednesday,” said Byrne. “It’s taking nothing out of him and he is improving every week. He is getting used to the arena so is more rideable in the dressage while his jumping is smooth and consistent. I will probably take him to Lisgarvan (Sunday, April 28th) for his first Eventing Ireland run this season.”
Destination Street finished off the 2018 eventing campaign with three outings at EI100 level.
DOMINANT DISPLAY
Wednesday’s third leg of the Stepping Stones to Success League started and finished with victory for members of the Widger family from Waterford with Jess Widger proving nearly unbeatable in the QHP Equestrian event pony class.
The 14-year-old filled three of the top four placings in the 12-runner competition, winning on the previous weekend’s runner-up, Grantstown True Love, and finishing second on the closely-related week one winner, Grantstown Coat of Many Colours, both owned by the rider’s mother Laura. For good measure, Jess finished fourth with Tom O’Riordan’s Grantstown Charisma.
Killian Murphy won the Liam Maloney-judged dressage phase with Clive Swindell’s Burning Daylight gelding Tullaree Van Graf (50.9) ahead of senior rider Jade Morton on her own Glenmore Buster (49.2). Murphy was also third at this stage on his father Peadar’s Ridge Cross Lad (47.7) with Widger next best on Grantstown Coat of Many Colours (47.4).
In the Derby Arena, the Waterford rider, who stood reserve in the junior equitation championship at Dublin in 2017, came into her own. Taking in the Johnny Kyle-awarded conformation marks and the jumping scores of Ian Fearon and Dag Albert, she won on Grantstown True Love (162), was second with Grantstown Coat of Many Colours (158) and third with Grantstown Charisma (152.5) for respective completions scores of 206.7, 205.4 and 196.1. Murphy was third overall on Ridge Cross Lad (198.7).
True Love and Coat of Many Colours, both five-year-old mares, are by the Connemara stallion General Humbert, a son of Earl of Newbridge. The winner, who was bred by the rider’s grandfather, Tosh Widger, is out of the Templebready Bo’sun mare Grantstown Dark Angel, a daughter of the dam of Coat of Many Colours.
As written here before, Jess is trained by Paddy O’Donnell, Ciara Power, her uncle Johnny Widger and his sister Caroline. The last-named owned and bred Wednesday’s four-year-old winner, Grantstown Trendy, so there was plenty to celebrate when the crew got back to Grantstown Stables that night.