THE fourth leg of the Stepping Stones to Success league, colloquially referred to as Viewing Day, was held at Wexford Equestrian on Tuesday when those who competed in the young event horse classes enjoyed doing so in sunshine while those with later start times got a real soaking.

Gillian Kyle once again popped down from Co Wicklow to the Tomhaggard venue, this time to assess all forward in the dressage phase, while the jumping judge duties were divided between longtime Stepping Stones advocate Ian Fearon (show jumping) and Dag Albert (cross-country), Horse Sport Ireland’s high performance manager for eventing young riders and senior athletes.

All videos from Tuesday are available to view on Tadhg Ryan’s Bit Media website and the Irish Horse Board’s website thanks to funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

There were repeat wins in the Childeric Saddles young event horse classes for Patrick Whelan with his own and Julie Radden’s four-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Tomgar Valour and for Diarmuid Ryan with Bridget Spiers’s home-bred five-year-old ISH gelding BT Just Special.

The latter combination, winners of the 2024 Childeric Saddles four-year-old league and final, have been busy recently, not only competing in arena eventing but also in pure show jumping. The I’m Special de Muze bay, who is out of a non-winning thoroughbred mare by Robin Des Pres, recorded one of 14 double clear rounds over two days in a DAFM Stud Book series 110cm for five-year-olds at Mullingar.

“After next week’s final, our next target with the horse is the Star of the Future final at Balmoral Show (May 14th to 17th),” commented Ryan. “We’ll probably keep jumping but will also try to get to Dublin again for the young event horse class.”

On Tuesday, Ryan and BT Just Special won on a total of 208.5 points ahead of Sophie Richards riding Louise Holohan’s Orado C (206.2) and Sarah Ennis on Susanne Macken’s Lady Sky M (204.52).

An ISH gelding by Jorado, Orado C was bred in Co Armagh by Jordan Campbell out of the Pacino mare Chino C, a half-sister to the Ard VDL Douglas gelding Master Douglas (CCI4*) among others. Lady Sky M, who has 20 Showjumping Ireland points to her credit, is an ISH mare by Kinsey out of a Je t’Aime Flamenco mare.

Patrick Whelan and Tomgar Valour winning the four-year-old class in the fourth round of the Stepping Stones to Success League \ Tadhg Ryan Bit-Media

Four-year-old class

While most legs of the Stepping Stones to Success league are held on a Wednesday, this final qualifying round was brought forward a day to accommodate those competing in the international event at Ballindenisk.

Among the many to benefit was locally-based Patrick Whelan who is riding five horses at Ballindenisk and got six of his youngsters out at Wexford Equestrian. Here, he recorded a comprehensive win in the Childeric Saddles four-year-old class on the Goresbridge Go For Gold graduate Tomgar Valour (207.5), a bay son of Imnotafraidfortuna.

For good measure, Whelan placed fourth with another Go For Gold graduate, Lisa Cash’s ISH gelding Bobby Johnson (196.5), a grey by SHS Soco Blue on whom he had finished second the previous week.

Runner-up

This time, the runner-up position was filled by the ISH gelding Ramello (200.5), a son of Jacadello who rider Sarah Curry owns in partnership with Maurice Cousins who bred the chesnut out of the Ramiro B mare Diro. Daniel Alderson placed third with the consistent ISH mare Urlanmore Vivant Cruise (198), Oliver and Alana-Rose Steele’s daughter of Vivant van de Heffinck.