THEY may not have appreciated the fact at the time but, given the heavy rain of the previous night and the wet and wild conditions on Sunday, the organisers of Saturday’s Dressage Ireland Eastern Region show at Marlton Stud were blessed with a dry, bright day for their league finals.

Regional committee member Siofra Pratt left the Wicklow venue with three titles in the bag having won the Novice league on InCobnito and both Elementary and Medium leagues with Ballarin My Grace, the Irish Sport Horse mare on whom she had won the Medium Category 2 national championship at Ballindenisk on their previous start. She had topped all three leagues following the penultimate leg last month.

Pratt and the 12-year-old Kings Master chesnut Ballarin My Grace recorded their sole win on Saturday in the Elementary DI51, where Lynne Cassidy (List 3a) awarded them her top score of 70%. In the Medium DI67, judged by Bernie Foley (List 1), they had to settle for second (66.67) behind Sara Glynn and her home-bred ISH mare Granny Jeans Unicorn (67.73), a nine-year-old daughter of Jack Of Diamonds.

Pratt and the wonderfully-named InCobnito scored 66% in the Novice DI24A, judged by Sarah-Jane Doyle (List 5), which saw them comfortably beat their three registered rivals. However, she and the eight-year-old black gelding finished some way behind Louise Lynn and the unregistered 22-year-old ISH mare Paulank Brockagh (73.83), the 2014 Badminton (CCI5*-L) winner. Lynn and the Touchdown bay also topped Cassidy’s overall leaderboard on 71.03 in the Novice DI21.

Going into Saturday, Pratt and InCobnito were lying second in the Preliminary league behind Avril Kelly and the Connemara mare Kinamara Laura, who extended their lead when winning the Cassidy-judged DI8 on 67.31%. In the second Preliminary class, the DI18 judged by Doyle, Kelly and her 11-year-old Cashelbay Chip dun finished some way behind Fiona Huber and the unregistered Newmarket Kilmastulla Knight (70.21), a Newmarket Venture nine-year-old.

Advanced league

Some way off the pace going into Saturday’s final leg, Heidi Slott Jorgensen claimed the Advanced league as she and her Oldenburg stallion Engtoft’s Concorre, a brown 23-year-old by Continental out of Engtoft’s Gina (by Gorm Sottrupgard), were the only combination to appear before Foley in the day’s sole Advanced class.

Foley also judged the two-runner Elementary DI56A, won by Anne Lynch and her seven-year-old Ulysses M2S mare Parkswood Bonita (62.90%), and the two four-runner Advanced Medium classes, which were both won by the busy Maeve Deverell and Annaharvey Dunowen. Heading to Ballindenisk next week for the CCI2*-S, Deverell and the home-bred 12-year-old Radolin gelding scored 68.33% in the FEI Junior Team Test and 67.35 in the FEI Junior Individual Test.

The sole starter to come before Foley in the Prix St George was Jennifer Egan with her Dutch Warmblood gelding Gabriël-Tetti (62.50%), a 14-year-old bay by Florencio. Niamh Winter was the only competitor to appear before her in the FEI Pony Individual Test, where she scored 67.30 on board her father Guy’s British Sport Horse mare Ode To Shannon, a 17-year-old daughter of Washington Postman.

Foley only had one combination to judge under a different system in the four-year-old class where they, Beth Pereira and her tall Oldenburg mare Total Diva (by San Amour I), scored 70.1%. In the Medium DI65, judged by Lynne Cassidy, Pereira topped the overall leaderboard but this time seeing off four rivals to do so with her Dutch Warmblood gelding Narciso (68.75), a seven-year-old chesnut by Capri’s Jim Beam.

The organisers advertised six dedicated Junior classes but there were no entries at all at Novice and Elementary level. The sole starter at Preliminary level was Lauren Blake who, on board her mother Anita’s 12-year-old grey gelding Cleighrane Warrior, scored 65.38% in the Cassidy-judged DI8 and 67.29 in the Doyle-assessed DI18.

Doyle also judged the three Trailblazers’ classes awarding her highest score (74.17%) in the four-runner Intro A Test to Laura Hayes riding Mr Jolly Jumper, a 16-year-old 131cm skewbald gelding. Some way off the pace there, Molly Breslin ran out the winner of the Trailblazers’ league with the former racehorse Kate Van Hull, a 15-year-old bay mare by Scorpion who, as the 6/4 favourite, won a point-to-point maiden first time out at Dromahane in late March 2015. She was only placed once, in a bumper, in six subsequent starts on the track, being retired from racing in November 2018.