THE Cullen family, Becky, Declan and Kitty, staged a second successful Eventing Ireland Northern Region event at The Clare last Saturday, two weeks after hosting the first one-day of the second half of the regional season and prior to their departure to this weekend’s European pony eventing championships at Le Mans.

Becky and Declan have long been promoters of thoroughbreds in eventing so, with sponsorship from Treo Eile and Cornbury House International Horse Trials (September 10th to 14th), they ran a dedicated class at EI100 level for bluebloods on Saturday. It attracted 11 entries but only seven riders with both Conor McClory and Molly Evans partnering three horses apiece.

There could well have been a larger entry for this Thoroughbred Pathway class had The Clare not clashed with the Tattersalls Ireland July Show where there were two flat classes, two performance classes and one working hunter class for thoroughbreds on Saturday’s programme. In a packed summer schedule, it’s difficult to avoid such conflicts.

McClory headed Joanne Cairns’ dressage leaderboard with Mr Marmalade (26.8 penalties) but that unraced six-year-old Lauro gelding had a pole down show jumping to finish third behind the Orlagh Halliday-ridden Cold War (28) and the Gemma Isler-partnered unraced eight-year-old Shirocco gelding Punters Dream (31) who both completed on their dressage scores. One combination was eliminated for 20 show jumping penalties, two were eliminated across the country and there was one retirement.

Cold War, who is owned by the rider’s husband Colin Halliday, is a nine-year-old gelding by Declaration Of War who was bred in the United States out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Good Vibes. His stable-name is Henry in deference to his former trainer Henry de Bromhead for whom the chesnut ran unplaced in three outings on the flat as a two and three-year-old. The Hallidays began eventing Cold War in April 2021. His previous five runs this season have been at EI110 level to which he returns at Loughanmore today.

“Henry is a really sweet horse who tries his heart out,” said Dundalk-based Orlagh Halliday of her winner. “From the start of the season, we were thinking of doing the thoroughbred class at Cornbury and that remains the aim. Although Saturday was only an EI100, it was a testing course - a strong EI100 - with a good bit of galloping. The ground was good and the event was very well run. We decided to support this more local event although we have four and five-year-olds who we would have liked to take to Tatts for the Burghley qualifier.”

On her seasonal debut, Emma Irwin led from start to finish in the 17-runner EI90 on PSH Let’s Tango whose completion score of 22.8 included 0.8 for time across the country. While Emma concentrated on her studies, the 17-year-old British Sport Horse mare by Song Song Blue was kept on the go by Ellie Hynds. Third after dressage, Grace McIlroy also finished on her first-phase score to win the seven-strong EI80 on the home-bred ISH gelding Millennium Ace (27), a 20-year-old by Simba bay.