“IT was a welcome, but maybe slightly surprising win,” said Nicky Roncoroni after she topped the leaderboard in the mammoth 33-runner EI110 at Hillcrest riding her mother Janey’s six-year-old Carrigshawn Ebony. “It’s been a bit of a slow start to the year,” she continued.

“I broke my hand and he got a bad overreach in his turnout pen in February, so that put paid to the beginning of the season for us, and this is only his second EI110. I don’t tend to run them that quickly around national one-day events, but he felt very at home running around Hillcrest.

“The ground was very good and the course was nice and flowing and he was happy to bowl along to come home only two seconds over the optimum time. He now heads to Millstreet, and the plan is to give him more mileage this year.”

Sarah Lundkvist finished second in this class on a final score of 32 to Roncoroni’s 31.6, riding Paul Donovan’s Sportsfield Super Star, while Molly O’Neill was third with Muckridge Ambassador.

Time penalties

Dressage leaders Sean Wrynn and GLS Cruising Home did so slowly, as cross-country time penalties combined with four faults show jumping saw them drop down the order.

Darragh Byrne led the EI115 (Open) after the Joan Ahern-judged first phase, in which he scored 24.1 with Madeleine Lloyd Webber’s Teachers Pet. He maintained this lead, despite incurring eight faults in the show jumping phase, because his nearest challengers after dressage, Neilus O’Donoghue and Penwhistle, incurred the same for eventual third. Dominic Furnell, meanwhile, maintained a clean sheet in the jumping phases with Ivanhoe, to finish second on their dressage score of 33.6.

Furnell also featured in the 17-runner EI115, where he finished third with Ballycahane Pocohontas, a seven-year-old by Pointilliste out of his Badminton mare Ballycahane Flower Power. His was the only clean sheet in the class, but Patrick Whelan’s dressage score of 26.4 with SHL Cantbetamed allowed him to retain the lead after incurring 2.8 time faults across country.

Godfrey Gibbons finished second with the Roberta Dowley-bred, Richard Ames-owned Belline Special Lady.

Gibbons also filled the runner-up slot in the EI110 (Open), this time on Belline Newmarket Delight, while John Tilley made it two wins from two runs at this level with Grand Espoir. Tilley topped the leaderboard for a second time in the EI100, this time riding the Irish Sport Horse Fernhill Quantum for Carol Gee and Deidre Lanigan.

The top six in the class were all double clear in the jumping phases, and Tilley’s dressage score of 25.5 gave him a solid lead over runners-up Sian Coleman and DSL The Explorer.

Fractions of a mark ahead

Pony rider Anna Radford claimed the EI90 with Kilbunny Tahiti, finishing just fractions of a mark ahead of David Raeburn and Glountane Corellie D, who are mentioned elsewhere on this page thanks to their win in Flowerhill. Hannah Goold and Paddys Best claimed the EI110 (P) with a jumping double clear, while Lucy Ferris on How Ya Sammy and Matilda Ormond on Corker Dun Shadow won the EI100 (P) and EI90 (P) respectively.

Abigail Kenny rode the Connemara Hogan The Brave to take pole position in the EI100 (J), and Zara McCarthy and her former Pony European Championship mount Romans Special Envoy claimed the EI110 (J).