THE judging pair of Fiona Cabrol and Terry Pendry began Thursday morning’s proceedings with one of the most hotly-contested classes on the Connemara schedule: the four and five-year-old ridden section.

An estimated 180 ponies tried for a golden ticket to this year’s final, across the summer’s four qualifiers. Eighteen combinations presented in Ring 2, where Cabrol oversaw individual ridden showpieces and Pendry assessed conformation.

Across the day, the pair did an initial pull for their top eight combinations before letting the remaining competitors self-arrange in the line-up.

Despite the level of interest across the summer months, there continues to be a vast array of abilities of ponies that compete at the final, some proving to be still very green on the day and overcome by the magnitude of the RDS arena.

Pulled top of line from the start was the widely-tipped Blakehill Zara (Glencarrig Camelot x Anabally Grey), the four-year-old grey mare owned by Kathryn and Charlotte Smiley and ridden by Rebecca Penny. Penny, who travelled from the UK to qualify the pony for this year’s class, has had riding at Dublin on her bucket list for some time.

“It’s one of those special shows,” she said. “I’ve been here as a spectator before and I said before I retired that I would love to ride a Connemara at Dublin. Luckily, I said to my lovely friends, if you’ve ever got a spare I’d love to come out and do the qualifiers and actually go the full way.

“And thankfully, they gave me a very, very nice one,” she shared after the win. This is Kathryn’s second consecutive year as winning owner in this section, whose discerning eye for a future star was proven again as the mare she bought from breeder Cian Geoghegan stood reserve in the evening’s championship class.

The initial line-up remained unchanged for the top three, with Aoife O’Connor’s bay gelding North Cottage Silver JJ (Abbeyside Silver x Cloonmore Cailin Oir), ridden by James Smyth, standing second and the grey gelding Ballylee Lemon (Slackport Prince x Lemonfield Lass), owned by Emma O’Gorman Wall and ridden by Chloe Lacey, rounding out the top three.