THERE were two dedicated classes for Connemara ponies throughout the Sports Pony Challenge series and on finals day at Barnadown where the winners were both grey stallions.

In the class for riders under 16, Keelan Murray did an excellent job in landing the spoils on one of the younger ponies in the line-up, his father Keith’s seven-year-old Lough Fadda Rudi (267 points) who stands at the family’s Whitethorn Stud in Roscommon.

The pair claimed both the dressage and performance working hunter phases but only finished fourth (for an additional 67 points) in the show jumping phase which was won by Aoife Cronin on the Wings Of Justice eight-year-old Newgrange Danny Boy who finished second overall on 263 points.

Lough Fadda Rudi has been having a busy time of late as he and Keelan have qualified for the Connemara performance hunter championship at the RDS while also competing under Eventing Ireland rules.

They won an EI90 class at Grove on their final outing at training level and looked on course to score on their EI100 debut at Tullymurry on Saturday but, unfortunately, were eliminated for leaving out part of a fence.

Lough Fadda Rudi, who was bred in Clifden by Padraic and Nicola Heanue, is by Coosheen Stormboy out of the Grange Bobbing Sparrow mare Grange Ruby Surf.

At the mounted awards ceremony, Murray was presented with the Higgins Family-sponsored Grey Victory trophy by Lorli Higgins, a member of the SPC organising committee.

Winning the class for riders over 16 was the well-known Wexford combination of Edwina O’Connor riding her mother Noreen’s Agharanny Minstrel whose record at Dublin includes a win in the older Connemara performance championship last year.

The grey was bred in Co Westmeath by Sean Hynes out of the Thunder Bay mare Silver Mint.

The 11-year-old Castleside JJ stallion, who completed on Tuesday on total of 263 points, won the performance working hunter phase but had to settle for second in the dressage phase behind the eventual runner-up, Grey Smoke (234), a 10-year-old All Smoke gelding ridden by Alicia Devlin Byrne for Michael and Theresa Clarke.

Devlin Byrne also won the show jumping phase but on the veteran Blackwood Fernando, her mother Claire’s 21-year-old Ferdia gelding.

Edwina O’Connor appreciated being presented with the Bob Marley trophy which honours Anne Stanley’s great 1998 Ashfield Bobby Sparrow gelding who, taking it a bit quieter these days, carried so many different riders to championship success.