COMPERE Raymond Bready had no need to check his notes when it came to naming the winner of the leading rider award at last Saturday night’s Eventing Ireland Northern Region awards ball in the Stormont Hotel, Belfast.

“I’ve been doing this job for 24 years and during this time the same rider has won the award on 23 occasions and again tonight your leading rider of the year is Steven Smith!” announced Bready who handed over the microphone to Smith once the latter had been presented with his award by regional chair, Georgia Stubington.

In his speech, Smith paid tribute to his very supportive wife Jenny, the back-up team in the yard and to his brother Trevor. He advised the young riders present to work hard to achieve their goals. Speaking to the Irish Horse World on Monday, Smith was able to confirm exactly how many times he had won the award which is for the rider who accumulates most points at Northern Region events.

“Jenny and I worked it out that I’ve won it 30 times, losing out one year to Eric Pele when I went travelling and one year to Joseph Murphy when I broke my ankle. I don’t go out to win the award but I do go out each week to compete to the best of my ability and that of my horses. I do it for my owners and I was delighted that Ger Riley, Garreth and Susan O’Shea and Campbell and Julieann McLean could attend the ball. Unfortunately, Joe Marley (a fixture in the yard) couldn’t.”

The McLeans own the Irish Sport Horse gelding Annaghmore Cornoko who won the Hodgkinson silver goblet for Smith as the leading NR horse at EI110 level while the rider was also presented with the Hodgkinson rose bowl as winner of the EI100 award with Marshall and Sarah Riley’s KWPN gelding Watermolen Cooley.

The yard also produced the EI115 level winner of the Glenhill Gold trophy, the traditionally-bred ISH mare Ballygreenan Break Point. Unfortunately, neither owner/breeder Valerie Breen nor rider Casey Webb was on hand to accept the trophy, the latter because she was attending Rosie Alcorn’s hen party in Liverpool.

Another winner out of the Gilford yard was Virginia Maguire’s home-bred thoroughbred gelding Handsome Starr who claimed the EI110 Junior award under Lee Bloomfield who has since moved on to pastures new.

“Casey is still with us thankfully as not only is she a wonderful rider but she is also great looking after owners and all the yard’s social media, as I know nothing about that!” said Smith who tops six of the eight Eventing Ireland statistical tables this season.

“My daughter Hollie helps out at the weekends and we have two very good girls in the yard, Jane and Sonia, but we could really do with another good rider so I could step back a bit.

"I’ve a nice few 4* horses for next season but we also have plenty of four and five-year-olds and now three-year-olds we’d like to do a bit with.”

Bready’s job wasn’t over after the presentations as he also conducted the auction and ballot with assistance from Georgia Stubington, Claire Palmer and David Lowry after which the floor was left to those dancing to The Bizz. Unfortunately, and through no fault of their own, the committee had to change the date of the ball, which is a major fund-raiser for the region, and the numbers were down on previous years mainly due to the aforementioned hen party, Kaiti McCann’s 21st birthday and a big birthday of David O’Connor’s father which took out the large Tullymurry and Hazeldene Farm contingents.

Grassroots league

While Helen Dempsey of Equipe Saddles Ireland kindly provided prizes for the top six finishers in the Northern Region Equipe Saddles grassroots league it was Dora Beacom, using a complicated points system she herself devised, who worked out the placings. The prizes were presented at last Saturday’s regional awards ball in the Stormont Hotel, Belfast.

The results were calculated on performance across all classes from EI100 down to EI80 level with points awarded at all Northern Region events. The number of points allocated were reduced where there were less than 11 entries in a class while, in line with Eventing Ireland rules on Grassroots Membership, any horse or rider that had attained more than two MERs at EI110 level in the past five years were excluded.

Picking up her third prize of the night was Katie McKee who topped the league with her Irish Sport Horse gelding Summit, the 12-year-old Je T’Aime Flamenco bay on whom she also won the regional EI100 Amateur award and, for good measure, Eventing Ireland’s EI100 Amateur points league. Summit was bred out of the Nadar mare Olive Olye II by June Burgess, one of this year’s recruits to the Northern Region’s candidate commentator training programme.

Katie also won the regional EI90 Amateur award with Water Paint, the 10-year-old skewbald gelding on whom she won Eventing Ireland’s EI90 Amateur points league.

EI100 (J) league winner Maya Constable at the Eventing Ireland Northern Region awards ball \ Sporting Images NI

Patsy Boal trophy

Maya Constable had a busy night as she was presented with two awards before picking one award winner on behalf of her mother Kim.

Maya was the recipient of the Patsy Boal memorial trophy, as winner of the EI100 Junior award on board Kim’s traditionally-bred Irish Sport Horse gelding Urneypark Big Cat, and, for the second successive year, of the Mission Accomplished trophy as winner of the EI100 Pony award with her mother’s Irish Sport Pony gelding Rockon Pedro.

Nationally, 15-year-old Maya, who won the Demlay Equestrian EI100 Junior and Pony Leagues on the same two animals, had the third most wins of any rider at all levels this season, behind only the elsewhere-mentioned Steven Smith and Co Wicklow-based New Zealand international Amanda Goldsbury.

Maya’s final trip to the presentation table on Saturday night was to pick the winner of the £1,000 which Kim generously donated for a special draw between all those volunteers who had helped at a minimum of six events in the year. There were 26 names in the tombola box and the very lucky winner was Justine Rush who mainly acted as a cross-country fence steward but would undertake any task requested of her.

Pony award

Another young rider who paid repeated visits to the presentation table was Kitty Cullen who did so with her left arm in a sling having badly fractured her collarbone in a fall.

Sitting with friends, apart from her very proud parents Declan and Becky, Kitty was presented with the Fair Lad salver as winner of the EI110 Pony award on Lisa Donnan’s Greenaun Russel, the nine-year-old Connemara gelding with whom she won the Silver Fox trophy for the regional Pony of the Year.

Fifteen-year-old Kitty also won an award as the Pony Club member gaining the highest placings throughout the Northern Region season and she was the recipient of a representational honour having finished 10th, and best-placed of the Irish, at the European pony eventing championships in Le Mans, France on Coppenagh Spring Sparrow, the 16-year-old grey gelding owned by Jane Hancock.

The other winners of representational honours were: Molly O’Connor, who competed at the Junior European Championships in Strzegom, Poland with her father Paul’s traditionally-bred ISH mare Stillbrook Aoife; Northamptonshire-based Susie Berry, who competed at the Senior European Championships in Blenheim, England with Sue Wilkinson and Ann Marling’s ISH mare Clever Trick; and Northern Ireland-based US international Gillian Beale-King who competed in the CCI2*-L for six-year-olds at the World Breeding Eventing Championships for Young Horses in Le Lion d’Angers, France on Lawrence Patterson’s Zangersheide stallion Dorus Heldenlaan Z.

Beale-King and Patterson were also recipients of the Belle Canna trophy for International Horse of the Year (the Northern Region-registered horse gaining most NR points worldwide) thanks to the performances of the nine-year-old ISH mare Tullibards Evita.

Katie McKee, EI100 and EI90 amateur league winner at the Eventing Ireland Northern Region awards ball \ Sporting Images NI

Pescetto friendship trophy

The winner of the Pescetto friendship trophy for the most improved Junior rider as selected by high performance managers Sue Shortt and Dag Albert was Katie Robinson while the Hanna trophy for the rider who accumulates most points at Northern Region events on a single horse was presented to Nichola Wray for her results with her nine-year-old bay gelding Dylan AKA Springhill Showman.

The winners of the Roy Pugh memorial award for the top groom and the Bright Outlook trophy for the amateur who best exemplifies the ethos of their status will be presented with their awards at the Northern Region’s AGM which takes place on Tuesday, January 13th.