JANE Bradbury judged the second of the RDS Junior equitation qualifiers last Sunday at Barnadown where, between the two classes, just short of 130 combinations vied for eight tickets to compete at the Dublin Horse Show in August.

Bradbury has up to 120 marks, which are specifically allocated under nine headings, to award to each starter which, in Sunday’s class for ponies not exceeding 138cm, ranged from 96 down to 66 among those who completed (five failed to do so).

Two riders earned the judge’s top score but, as she had recorded the higher marks for ‘use and effectiveness of the aids’, Ella Brander was placed first with Yvonne Hickey’s Bannview Spartacus, a 15-year-old grey gelding the young rider has been competing since the summer of 2023.

Drawn second to jump, Chloe McHugh O’Connor finished in that position on the final leaderboard, having also achieved a score of 96 for her round with Geraldine Dempsey’s Moona Curragh Ted. On a previous visit to Dublin, back in 2023, this now 20-year-old bay gelding finished second in a working hunter pony class.

The third qualifying ticket was bagged by Rhys Robinson, who accumulated 95 marks on board Suzanne Rogan’s French-bred Connemara mare Scala de L’Aulne. Also now 20 years of age, this grey finished sixth in the final at Dublin in 2024, when ridden by Lily Rogan Mills. A further mark adrift in fourth came Mia Grey O’Leary on Camilla Grey’s 12-year-old Castlegannon Tara, a daughter of Grange Finian Sparrow, who only started competing under Show Jumping Ireland rules this year but is well known on the Pony Club circuit.

Frustratingly for Rachel Westphal, who also scored 96, she failed to qualify in fifth with Shona Lynch’s 23-year-old home-bred mare Clonross Giselle (by Grange King’s Surf), on whom she won the Karlswood High Performance Centre-sponsored class last August.

Most surprisingly, 15 of the 81 starters failed to finish in the 153cm class, where Bradbury awarded her highest score of the day, 99 marks, to Emily Appleby riding Brian Cassidy’s 13-year-old dun gelding Killaloe Stepping Out. Emily, a daughter of leading British flat trainer Charlie Appleby and his wife Aisling, is being coached at Greg Broderick’s Ballypatrick Stables.

This breakthrough success in Ireland for Emily was preceded on Saturday with a Group 1 win for her father at Newbury, where the Godolphin-owned and bred Notable Speech won the Boylesports Lockinge Stakes as the 2/1 favourite.

Back to Barnadown, where Orla Cleary, a daughter of flat jockey (and show horse rider/producer) Rory Cleary and his wife Sarah, finished second on 98 marks with her mother’s eight-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare Ballypierce Luna (Sibon W - Allihies Cailin Bui, by Templebready Fear Bui), another dun.

Two combinations finished on 97 marks apiece, with Sophie O’Donnell claiming the third qualifying ticket on board a grey, Sarah Mannix’s eight-year-old Connemara gelding Grantstown Misty Star (Doonhill Billy - Moycullen Mist, by Kippure Alkatraz). Charlotte Foley took the final qualifying spot in fourth with Olga Doyle’s nine-year-old French-bred gelding Hobelix Templiers, a dun.

The third of four qualifiers is scheduled to take place at Maryville Stables on Saturday, June 20th.