TARA Hayes, who is currently raising funds to ride in the Pat Smullen Charity Race at The Curragh towards the end of August, claimed the riding honours on Saturday at Marlton, where the Eastern Region of Dressage Ireland ran their monthly show in lovely weather conditions.

Curragh-based Hayes won three times in front of Mark Ruddock (List 1 British Dressage), seeing off one rival in each of the three tests.

Her treble commenced in the sole Advanced Medium class (FEI Junior Team Test), where she scored 67.73% on board her mother Fiona’s Dutch Warmblood gelding Ferrero K, a 16-year-old brown son of Apache.

Hayes then won both the Prix St George (67.35) and the FEI Intermediate I (67.79) with Fiona’s 10-year-old home-bred Irish Sport Horse mare Sandora BS, a 10-year-old daughter of Speilberg.

Ruddock’s other Graded winners were Iris Walshe and her eight-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Nirvana RH (64.29) in the three-runner Advanced DI100, Aine Cafferkey who recorded an uncontested victory with her KWPN-registered 10-year-old gelding Leejoy (66.18) in the FEI Intermediate II, and Cael Shanahan.

The last-named was the sole starter in both FEI Junior tests with Suzanne Kendrick’s eight-year-old Angelo European Studbook-registered Santana, scoring 67.27 in the Team test and 69.12 in the Individual test.

Paula Geiger (List 3) judged both Medium classes, but had just the one winning combination, Sara Glynn and her home-bred 10-year-old ISH mare Granny Jeans Unicorn (Jack Of Diamonds - Killossery Ringwood, by Touchdown), who topped the leaderboard in the DI77 on 68.57 and the DI73 on 67.50.

Geiger awarded her highest score of the day, 69.33, in the five-runner Novice 24A, to Michaela Steyn Keating riding her Dutch Warmblood stallion O’Neal From Second Life, a seven-year-old son of Vitalis.

In two Elementary 53 classes, Geiger awarded a score of 65.67 to both Nadine Taylor on the 10-year-old ISH mare Heigh Ho Rosey (Heigh Ho Dubh - The Rosey Hero, by Crannagh Hero) and Darragh Whyte with his 2016 ISH mare Miss Uptown Girl (OBOS Quality 004 - Grange Princess, by Close Conflict) in the Junior class.

Ruth Daunt (List 4) judged the other two dedicated Junior classes, the Preliminary 16 and the Novice 39. Here, her overall winners respectively were Áine Murphy on board Metalbridge Rocky (67.8), an 11-year-old traditionally-bred ISH gelding by Uskerty Sweet Lad, and Oisin Phelan riding Killahara Ailbhe (68.28), a seven-year-old ISH gelding by Boherdeal Clover.

Daunt’s other overall winners at these levels were Megan Stokes on the ex-racehorse Woods (70.77 in the Preliminary DI6), Emma Downey with the ISH gelding Rocky Beach (65.20 in the Preliminary DI16) and Lydia Dawson on her seven-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Odjee Toto (69.14 in the Novice DI39).

Eleven combinations appeared before Daunt in the Elementary DI55, where she awarded her highest score (71.96) to Hannah Lynam riding the six-year-old Hanoverian mare Dark Diamond.