BATTERSTOWN rider Sarah Ennis is aiming for a hat-trick of victories in the four-year-old young event horse class where she rides Alice Kehoe’s home-bred Westwinds Navigator, a half-brother to their 2014 winner Westwinds Mackenzie.

There is a different format to the competition this year but it is still being staged over two days with horses due to appear in Ring 2 before the international panel of Bill Levett, Jim Woofford and Erik Grandiére at 3.35pm on Wednesday with the second half of the event taking place in the Main Arena the following morning.

Horses qualified for the Dublin Horse Show through the recently-completed Young Event-horse Series (YES), which was covered extensively in the Irish Horse World section of The Irish Field.

Four-year-olds worthy of further mention are the league winner, Mary Bolger’s Rehy High Society gelding Kilcannon High Society (Jason Higgins), Emma Jackson’s Balmoral young event horse winner Aaroch (by Cashell) and the Lancelot gelding Caltra Lancini (Colin Halliday) whose Co Antrim owner, Sandra Hamilton, is another to have had previous winners in this section.

There is a quartet of mares among the four-year-olds, two of whom have been nominated for the prestigious Pembroke cup for the champion owner-bred horses of the show, the McLoughlin Bros’ Askoll Peter Pan mare Glendew (Gwen Scott) and Anne Marie O’Gorman’s brown daughter of Iroko, LVS Iowa (D.J. O’Sullivan).

Ennis completed a double in 2013 and could do so again next week as Kehoe’s Westwinds Mackenzie (by Ricardo Z), who ran away with the five-year-old YES league, will join his half-brother on the Stellor Sport Horses lorry heading to Dublin.

Among his rivals in the RKD Architects-sponsored class are the Balmoral winner, Jane Bloomer’s Ars Vivendi gelding Hollybrook Hotshot (Louise Bloomer), who has had some good Eventing Ireland outings recently, and James King’s Emperor Augustus gelding Corbally Night (Nicola Ennis) who looked unlucky not to win on the final day of the League at Dollanstown.

There are six five-year-old mares including Miriam Murphy’s home-bred Porsch chesnut Sugar Bunnie (Sarah Ennis), a full-sister to Ennis’s European championship ride Sugar Brown Babe.

The same trio of judges will assess the 10 geldings and four mares who have qualified for the small event horse class which is also judged in two stages.

Favourite among these are Sharon Power’s owner-ridden seven-year-old Master Imp gelding Stonehavens Master Class, who finished ninth in the CCI* for young horses at Tattersalls international horse trials, and Sheena Hanley’s home-bred six-year-old Lux Z gelding Luz Cosmic, the winner of two qualifiers under Diarmuid Ryan.

Looking to the future, riders will take a big interest in the potential event horse class for three-year-olds, qualification for which was also given coverage recently in the Irish Horse World.

Australian Bill Levett was the visiting judge at the five qualifiers which took place throughout the country in late June but, for Wednesday’s two-phase competition, it’s German international Kai-Steffen Meier who fills the role.

There are eight fillies among the 17 entries of whom two are by thoroughbred sires, Kevin McDermott’s Ballymurphy Peg, a bay daughter of Golden Master, and Neva McNamara’s bay by Watermill Swatch.

In spite of constant reminders that more thoroughbred blood is needed in eventing, none of the geldings are by TB sires but two are out of TB mares.

The first, Kathy Charlton’s Noble Class, is a grey by the Irish Draught Cappa Cassanova out of the unraced Aristocracy mare The Marching Lass, a full-sister to the five time-winning, Grade 3-placed hurdler Marching Marquis and to the 11-time winner Stanmore. Ann Cregan’s Cassino Royal is a bay by the Swedish Warmblood Cassino out of the non-winning Close Conflict mare Close Encounter.