STEVEN Smith and Gina Johnston’s 10-year-old Vittorio gelding Bonito improved a place from last year to win the O/CNC** class despite having a fence down show jumping.

The pair were lying in second place after dressage on a score of 30.9 penalties and were left in the lead when Elizabeth Power withdrew Soladoun (30). They consolidated their position at the top of the leaderboard with the section’s fastest cross-country round which saw them pick up 6.8 penalties for time.

“I didn’t go as quick as usual as it was tough in the wind and the ground was quite holding,” said Smith. “Conditions were unpleasant but, on the plus side, there was no hail and sleet as there has been at Tyrella in the past. I plan to do the advanced with Bonito next Saturday (today), with the CIC*** at Ballindenisk and the CCI*** at Tattersalls his main targets for the first half of the year. After that we’ll play it by ear.”

The busy Smith, who, on Monday, was course building for his beloved Iveagh Pony Club’s Easter derby, has, as usual, a lot of horses this season and will be found on the road both days each weekend as he bids to get them all out competing.

Elizabeth Hayden filled the runner-up slot on Saturday when adding 12.4 cross-country time penalties to her flatwork mark of 36.4 with her new ride for the season, Loughnatousa Joey. Mainly partnered last year by Brian Cournane, the 10-year-old won an intermediate class at Cholmondeley Castle in August under Andrew Nicholson. Power also led the five-runner CNC** class after dressage with Mind Me (35) but the home-bred thoroughbred, who returned to action at Rosanna following a long spell on the sidelines, picked up 20 jumping penalties at the water at nine and then lowered one of the coloured poles.

The winner, on her first start at this level following success in the CNC* at Rosanna, was Barry McCann’s lovely Parco mare Mullentine High Society. The nine-year-old’s completion score (47.6) under a delighted Suzanne Hagan included 9.6 for time across the country.

Power had to settle for second place in the O/CNCI* class with Fernhill for Sure, who added 4.4 time penalties on the second leg to his winning first phase score of 30.3. Here, Gerald Bloomer might just have discovered a new route to success following victory with Calliaghstown Flight – don’t walk the cross-country course!

Bloomer, his sister Louise and their four horses were left sitting on the side of the road south of Newry for about two hours following a blow-out to one of the tyres on their lorry. “I had an idea where I was going watching others before me on the cross-country and it was lucky that it was a nice flowing track,” commented the Co Wicklow rider, who added just 1.2 time penalties on the second leg to a flatwork mark of 32.5.

Other Wicklow riders on the mark on Saturday were Michael O’Toole, who recorded a double, and Kim O’Gorman.

The latter won Section A of the CNC* with O’Toole’s Night And Light, the Peggy Murphy-bred Cavalier Two For Joy mare on which she took over the ride last season. The pair added just 0.8 of a penalty for time on the final leg for a completion score of 28.6.

“I don’t have a great record with mares,” stated O’Toole. “And just wasn’t getting the results with Night And Light. Kim has worked her magic on her and it’s a partnership made in heaven.”

The Tinahely veterinary surgeon won Section B on his dressage score of 36.5 with the tall, 11-year-old Puissance gelding Hunters Lodge Puissance whose owner, Andrew Byrne, is on overseas duty with the Irish Army in Mali. “I plan to bring him back up to two-star level at Lisgarvan and then aim him at the CIC** at Ballindenisk. This was a most unexpected win.

“I thought the cross-country track was big and bold but with some technical elements early on. I liked the direction the course followed as it’s hard on horses, especially early on in the season, when they send them out towards the sea and into the sand dunes at the start – you could get lost out there!”

A pole down show jumping proved costly here for the Jodie O’Keeffe-ridden Reenmore Duke (37.2) as it did for Conor O’Hare and Lougherne Leo II (34) in section A of the EI 90 won by O’Toole and Luke Drea’s Bee On Track who had finished sixth on his debut at Rosanna.

The winner, who added 3.2 cross-country time penalties to his dressage score of 30.5, is a six-year-old bay gelding by Kings Master out of a Ricardo Z mare who was herself out of a Rich Rebel mare.

Ballyclare’s Amy Griffith recorded an all-the-way victory in Section B with the 13-year-old thoroughbred mare Ballymacenallen Arial (32.8), winner last year of the EI 90 national championships. Isabelle Persse finished second with her new ride DBS Houdini (34), a nine-year-old gelding by Porsch.

That deceased Belgian Warmblood stallion is sire also of the Stacey Watling-ridden So Porsch, narrow winner on her dressage (29) of the EI 100 Section A. The attractive seven-year-old bay mare finished fourth in a CNC* class at Ballinagore (2) last season on her second start at that level and should move up from here.

Alex Donohoe led from start to finish when claiming section B on her flatwork mark of 28.8 with the six-year-old Natal gelding Coonlee Cabernet who is out of a Test Flight mare.