THE Northern Region of Eventing Ireland held their customary pre-season two-phase event last Saturday at Tyrella, where there may have been a cool start to the morning but the sun shone down throughout a long and busy day at John and Hannah Corbett’s wonderful seaside venue.

Saturday marked Andrew Napier’s unveiling as a cross-country course designer outside his own domain of Hazeldene Farm and, by all accounts, he didn’t disappoint. He was assisted in preparing the course by his father Nigel, while his wife Laura was in charge of dressing the fences on the three tracks.

The ‘house-full’ sign went up early for this fixture when the entries opened in mid-January and the same can be said about Tyrella 1, which is on today, and Tyrella 2 on April 4th. Thankfully, the ground held up very well last Saturday and there was little obvious sign that roughly 250 horses and ponies had been around. Even in the show jumping ring, where Aaron McCusker continues as the regional course builder, the ground wasn’t badly marked.

There were 33 starters in the opening 1m class, where the time was set at EI110 speed. No one managed to beat the clock, the nearest combination, who were a second over, were Erin McClernon and her 14-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Seapatrick Beachball. With 1.2 cross-country time penalties, Rebekah McKinstry finished second with the 10-year-old ISH gelding HVL Jack Pot.

Eight of the 35 starters went double clear in the 1m class at EI100 speed, where Castlewellan’s Molly Goodwin claimed the honours when closest to the optimum time on Otis (aka Out Dream W), the seven-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding she began competing with Eventing Ireland at the start of the 2025 season.

Here, there was a divide for second between the more locally-based Christine Findlay on her 11-year-old British Sport Horse gelding Parklodge Over And Under and north Co Dublin’s Jill Revill, who travelled up to Co Down for the second week running with her six-year-old ISH gelding Lislan Chacfly.

There were over 60 starters in the 85/90cm class, but only three of these managed to complete on a zero score, with the optimum time ruling then coming into play. The honours went to the well-known, and very successful, EI90 Amateur combination of Kaiti McCann with her father Martin’s 17-year-old skewbald mare Boyher Cookies N Creme.

Erin McClernon had to settle for second on this occasion with the seven-year-old French-bred Jumper D’Ainay, who featured in the Treo Eile Beyond The Finish Line column in this newspaper last week. Jennifer Gilchrist recorded the third clear with another thoroughbred gelding, the nine-year-old Millstream Mahler.

There were only two clears in the 23-runner junior class over the same track and these couldn’t be separated. Sharing the top spot were Emily Turley with the very consistent 19-year-old Welsh cob Budore Mystic Legend and Tilly Tumilty with the traditionally-bred eight-year-old ISH gelding Rock Impulse, who she started competing last spring.

No one managed to go double clear within the time in the 50-runner senior class over the 75/80cm track but, unlike the four riders behind her on the final leaderboard, the winner, Cara Collins, left all the show jumps intact. She did, however, pick up 4.8 cross-country time penalties on her seven-year-old bay mare Rosa (aka Mharla Majestic Lady). Michelle McConnell finished second with her traditionally-bred 11-year-old ISH mare Inisbri Dawn Chorus (6.8).

The top three on the final leaderboard in the Junior 75/80cm class owed their positions to their faster cross-country scores, as each picked up four show jumping penalties. The Turley family had another reason to celebrate, as Emily’s 12-year-old sister Darcy partnered a skewbald mare of the same age to claim the win on 6.4, ahead of Tilly Ham riding Loughkeeland Aster (10.4) and C.J. O’Brien on Ballymena Freddie Red (12).