AT Wednesday’s Stepping Stones to Success League final in Wexford Equestrian, DEN Stride Stables’ Debbie Flavin partnered Geraldine Power’s Pine View Ice Cool to win the Doagh Equestrian event pony class in which he and his 11 rivals were all registered Connemaras.

The five-year-old Ice And Fire d’Albran grey, who was bred in Co Louth by Sharon Walsh out of Cool Secret (by Coill Rua Champ), topped the final leaderboard on 208.8 points. Ellen Tracey finished second on her own and Stephen Greene’s Ard RI Roisin five-year-old Clounanna Danny Boy (204.1) with Alannah Cole filling third place on Sylvia Cole’s Kilpatrick Sparkle (199.6).

Flavin finished fourth on her second ride in the class, Michael Keane’s Toovahera (199.4,) with her daughter, Emily Flavin-Redmond, just behind in fifth with Ballyerk Paulo (199.2). There were only two mares in the final, the higher-placed in seventh being Anne Burns’s owner-ridden Glenrock Sparrow (192.7).

Worthwhile

Flavin senior’s trip to Tomhaggard from Tullow proved well worthwhile as she took the top two places in the league on Pine View Ice Cool (32.5) and Toovahera (30) with Tracey finishing third on Clounanna Danny Boy (28.5). Participation in the Doagh Equestrian event pony class, which is confined to four, five and six-year-olds, should leave ponies well prepared for the Connemara and/or working hunter pony qualifiers for Dublin.