Margie McLoone
ORIEL member Jane McClean recorded back-to-back wins in the Irish Pony Club show jumping classic at Coilog EC last Sunday.
The 17-year-old was again riding her 2014 winner, Sonconcorde, a 16-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Concorde out of an Ahorn mare. Although nearly 17hh, the bay is well-balanced and responsive and McClean was more than happy that he would cope with George Georgiev’s jump-off track as well as his pony rivals.
Just four of the 11 starters qualified for the second round and, third to jump, McClean left all the poles intact in 40.96 seconds. Last in, Lauryn Waugh of the Muskerry branch only had to go clear to finish second, which she did on the 148cms grade A gelding Ballykeelaune Euro. Kilkenny’s Grace O’Donnell finished third on Strider, while Sligo’s Roisin Walsh filled fourth place on Trendy Blue.
army training
Sunday’s win rounded off a good pony club season for McClean who narrowly missed out on winning the Connolly’s Red Mills open eventing championships at Tattersalls last month when, leading going into the final show jumping phase, she unfortunately had two fences down with Dream Well, finishing third.
McClean, who is trained on the flat by Christina Keane and in show jumping by Linda Fahey, just failed to qualify for RDS young riders 1.30m championship with Sonconcorde when just two seconds outside the time at Ennis.
The Ardee rider enjoyed her 2014 classic win of a week’s training for herself and her horse at the Army Equitation School at the start of the year and she is very much looking forward to returning to McKee Barracks in early 2016. She will be joined by Waugh, who also won a prize of a week’s training with their accommodation costs being covered by the IPC.
Given that there are two such great prizes on offer in the classic, it’s a pity that the competition isn’t pushed more by the IPC and at branch level.
Longford’s Derek Shaw, who failed to qualify for the jump-off round in the 1.20m classic but did finish fifth on Lewinja, partnered the same horse to win the 1.10m classic finder, winning an IPC bursary of €150 in the process. Only six of the 24 entries progressed to the jump-off round where Shaw proved unbeatable on Lewinja, a 14-year-old German-bred mare by Laudatio.
Lauryn Waugh finished third on Ballykeelaune Euro, the pair being split by Shaw’s Longford clubmate Rebecca Yorke who slotted into second place with another German-bred mare, Classified One, an eight-year-old by Contender.
James Kavanagh finished fourth with Coppenagh Pride, the Carlow combination following up their win in the opening classic starter competition where 27 entries took on the one-metre track, with 16 making it through to the jump-off round.
Maria Cairns, a member of the Wexford branch, finished second on the 11-year-old grade A mare Mayday Cruise (by Cruising’s Ambassador) with the Golden Vale’s Megan Sheedy placing third on the 16-year-old Irish draught mare Featherbed Lass (by Carrabawn View) who also competes under riding club rules.
The classic is organised by the IPC’s chairman of show jumping Sylvaine Galligan who was joined on Sunday by the association’s chairman Barbara Micks and Marina Brennan, the eventing chair.