SUNDAY’s South Munster Region show at Maryville featured the opening leg of the O’Brien’s Saddlery League, the sixth round of which will take place on June 18th with the final being held on July 5th.

The best supported class of the day was the nine-runner Novice 24a judged by Faith Ponsonby (List 2A) whose comfortable overall winner was Diane Dowling riding Cliona Ni Liathain’s unregistered MJI Lady Alceis (73.17%). This 12-year-old ISH mare by Antaeus was bred in Co Antrim by List 1 judge Joanne Jarden out of Thistledown (by Island Blaze).

Under her owner, MJI Lady Alceis recorded an Advanced Medium double, landing an uncontested success in the FEI Junior Team Test (63.79) before Carey and then seeing off four rivals when awarded Ponsonby’s top score (68.53) in the DI90.

The judges disagreed at Medium level, Ponsonby favouring Grainne Murphy and her Pura Raza Española gelding Flamenco CCLXXXV (70;71), a nine-year-old son of Beethoven EM, in the four-runner DI77, while Carey’s winner of the DI65, in which there were three starters, was Fionnan Kiernan O’Brien and the unregistered Dutch Warmblood gelding Lohengrin (66.09), a nine-year-old dun by Habanna.

Ponsonby’s winner of the sole Elementary class, the DI55 in which there were six starters, was Caroline Marwood with Hannah Rose’s unregistered Investigator P (74.29), a 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Diamant de Semilly. Her winner of the sole Advanced class, the DI100 in which there were two starters, was Angela Lyons with her Hanoverian gelding Woodcroft Santa Cruz (64.57), a 17-year-old Sandro Hit bay.

Back to the novice section, there were only two starters in the DI26, judged in the short arena by Danielle Carey (List 3A), which was won by Natalie Nicholson on the unregistered ISH mare Cartown Jem (68.28), a 13-year-old bay by KEC Maximum Joe, while the sole combination to appear before Ponsonby in the DI27a was Sinead O’Regan riding the Connemara mare Brackhowney Roisin (66.21).

Rivalry

Earlier, O’Regan and the five-year-old daughter of Doire Mhianaigh Cascade saw off two rivals to win the Ponsonby-assessed Preliminary DI18 on 67.71. Six riders came before the same judge in the DI18 where both Category 1 rider Stephanie Cunningham on Ballymacadam BFM Lily and Muireann Lynch with the unregistered Whiteheart Renaissance were on 68.21.

Lynch had the higher collective score (62.5 to 61.5) to claim the honours in that class while she and the five-year-old Renaissance Man mare comfortably landed the DI6 where they achieved Carey’s highest score of 69.08.

Carey judged all four Trailblazers’ classes. Lily McLaughlin won both the Mini Intro (71.94) and the Under 12s’ Preliminary (68.39) on board her mother Susan’s Welsh Section D gelding Camarnaint Rambler; Amy Hearne and Elaine Whelton shared the top spot (72.32) in the Junior Preliminary on Violetbanks Tiger Lily and Ardnehue Golden Magic respectively; and then, in a match, Whelton beat Hearne in the Junior Novice (69.14).

Leg 2 of the O’Brien’s Saddlery league will be held at Ballindenisk on Saturday, December 6th.