CIARA O’Connor, who won the EI110 (J) at Tyrella 1 on Cooley Rebound, brought her seasonal tally at John and Hannah Corbett’s seaside estate to three last Saturday when recording a double with Ashwood Iron Lady and Ashwood Rio.
Both Irish Sport Horses were bred by their owner, the rider’s aunt Sharon O’Connor, out of her Ramiro B mare Pikeur who retired to stud with 87 Showjumping Ireland points while she also competed under the rules of both Eventing Ireland and the Association of Irish Riding Clubs.
In Saturday’s 19-runner EI110 (J), O’Connor and Ashwood Iron Lady, a 2017 daughter of Iron Man van de Padenborre, were lying second on 22.8 penalties following the Janet Hall-judged dressage phase. The lead at this stage was held by Katie Gibbons and Milchem Free Spirit (20), a new combination for this season who won the EI100 (J) two weeks previously.
Gibbons extended her advantage slightly when O’Connor was two seconds over the time in the show jumping phase but the Ballinasloe rider picked up 7.6 time penalties over Adam Stevenson’s cross-country track while her Co Wexford rival was quicker, adding just two penalties to complete on 25.6. Carla Williamson recorded a double clear inside the time to place third on 27.8.
Honours
The top seven in the 18-strong EI100 (J) completed on their Andrew Ross-awarded dressage scores, O’Connor claiming the honours on the six-year-old Dignified van’t Zorgvliet gelding Ashwood Rio (25.8) ahead of Carlow’s Ella Kidd and Coppenagh Otto (26.3).
O’Connor, a Fifth Year student at Gorey Community College, didn’t start Cooley Rebound on Saturday but next week he and Ashwood Iron Lady are due to run at the Kelsall Hill international in Cheshire while Ashwood Rio will be heading to Ballindenisk.
In the pony ranks, Co Armagh’s Kitty Cullen followed up her Tyrella 1 success by landing the three-runner EI110 on Lisa Donnan’s Connemara gelding Greenaun Russell, a nine-year-old dun by Carracanada River. However, in the EI100, where the majority of the 13 starters completed on their dressage scores, Cullen and Coppenagh Spring Sparrow had to settle for second (28.3) behind Co Kildare’s Tadgh O’Haire and his father James’s 13-year-old Expat’s Show Off gelding Expat’s Fireworks (24.3).
In the 12-runner EI90, Sarah Smullen on the Connemara gelding Macs Silver Cookee and Charlie Watson riding the Connemara mare Leamore Girl both completed on the dressage score of 26.8. However, as she was closer to the optimum time, Co Offaly’s Smullen claimed the win on board her mother Frances Crowley’s eight-year-old Silver Shadow bay.
Amateur
In the amateur ranks, Glenpatrick’s Britt Megahey won the EI110 with his ISH gelding R Showman, a Centrestage 10-year-old whose completion score (30.7) included 0.4 of a show jumping time penalty.
The ever-consistent Ciarrai Rice and her ISH mare Lady J, a nine-year-old daughter of Hallo Picasso, improved a place from Tyrella 1 to land the EI100 on their winning dressage score (25.3); while, dropping down a level since their previous start, and win, last July, Jaclyn Brackenridge and Cindy Cunningham’s 11-year-old Appaloosa gelding Comanche Arrow (22) also recorded an all-the-way victory in the EI90.