AMONG the many visitors to Knockany last Saturday for the final one-day event in the Northern Region for 2021 was consummate horseman George Stewart, from nearby Lisburn.

While he was talking about the “two and a half” horses he has to run in point-to-points this upcoming season and the six-year-old thoroughbred gelding Drake’s Island (by Jeremy) who Katie Arthur rode in the older performance horse championship at Balmoral yesterday, George was also being kept informed of what was going on at the Blenheim Palace international horse trials in England.

His interest lay in the CCI4*-S for eight- and nine-year-olds and, especially so, in the performance of Coolparks Sarco. He was absolutely delighted when, on Sunday, the Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan gelding won, on his dressage score (29.8 penalties), giving rider Nicola Wilson her first success in this prestigious competition.

The nine-year-old, who is out of the Coolcorron Cool Diamond mare Coolpark Lady Diamond, was bred in Co Galway by Michael and Joe Burke. George purchased the bay as a three-year-old and began to produce him slowly. Ridden by Jonny Mulligan, Coolpark Sarco competed in four EI100 events in the Northern Region as a four-year-old and at some local jumping shows.

When he was first sold to England, the horse was campaigned by Vicky Brake throughout 2017 and 2018, with the ride then going to New Zealand international Andrew Nicholson for the next two years. On their final outing as a combination, they finished seventh in the CCI3*-L at Bicton last October.

At Blenheim, Coolpark Sarco was having his 10th start under Wilson who also finished fourth, again on her dressage score (32.9), with the nine-year-old Beach Ball gelding Hawk Eye.