THERE was an excellent entry for last Sunday’s third and last leg of the Plusvital Spring Series of combined training competitions at Wexford Equestrian, where the dressage judging duties were divided between Vicky Cloney and Sarah-Jane Doyle.
“We were lucky that there was a bit of a stretch in the evening,” said organiser Orla Roche, the Tomhaggard venue’s joint-owner with husband Pat Peare, the second phase course builder. “We’d a mainly dry day, but there was one torrential downpour and I really felt for those riding their tests during it!”
Twenty combinations contested the opening CT80 but the first phase winners on 28.75, Freya Fitzgerald and Aille Sinoia Scooby, dropped down to seventh having picked up eight show jumping penalties, while the second-placed pairing of Ciara Kelly and Fanlehane Nariah (31) withdrew after dressage.
Lisa Doyle was left in the lead therefore to take the top points on her dressage score with the home-bred Ballinaguilkey Cardi (31), ahead of Anna Hudson Carlstrom who, likewise, completed on her flat work mark with Queen (31.25). Riding Diamant’s Babalou, Rita Naughton also finished the day on 31.25, but her tally included four show jumping penalties.
The winning Irish Sport Horse gelding Ballinaguilkey Cardi is a four-year-old by Cardento. He is out of the Dignified van’t Zorgvliet mare Ballinaguilkey Dignified, who has 143 Show Jumping Ireland points to her credit and is a full-sister to the Tullabeg Fusion gelding Ballinaguilkey Fusion Exchange. This is, of course, the family of Mark Q (CSI5*), EIC Cooley Jump The Q (CSI5*) and Ballinaguilkey Fortunus (CCI4*-L).
Win for Wisdom
There was mixed luck for Italian international Emma Zucconi in the 24-runner CT90. She ended up retiring Belline Candy Cruise in the dressage arena but, at that stage, had posted what turned out to be the winning score (25.75) with Richard Ames’s Belline Poynstown Wisdom.
On their dressage scores, Keira Crowther claimed the runner-up spot with OK Lucky Diamond (26.75), while Kate Jordan placed third on Serene Ace (27). Finn O’Gara had been in the lead on Rathmorrissey Independence (24) until having a pole down indoors, but we’ll attribute that error down to the fact that they had been caught in the downpour and were soaked through!
Twenty-three-year-old Zucconi joined Belline Equestrian towards the end of last year, having spent three seasons based with Giovanni Ugolotti in England. We are sure to hear more about this rider, and the other Belline jockeys, during the season as, reputedly, there are a lot of nice young horses in the Piltown yard.
The seven-year-old ISH gelding Belline Poynstown Wisdom, a late maturing son of Newmarket Venture, was purchased last summer from his Co Waterford breeders, Paula and Robert Widger, who had just done some cross-country schooling and hunting with the bay. He is out of the deceased Chillout mare Poynstown Amy, dam previously of the OBOS Quality 004 mare Poynstown Izzy (over 200 SJI points), the Clover Brigade mare Poynstown Clover (CCI3*-L) and the Clover Flush gelding Poynstown Braeve (CCI4*-S).
https://foto.ifj.ie/fotoweb/archives/5006-Irish-Horse-World/Irish%20Horse%20World/2020/WexfordCT100Dundon.jpg.info#c=%2Ffotoweb%2Farchives%2F5006-Irish-Horse-World%2F%3Fq%3Drosemary%2520dundon
Rosemary Dundon and Ah to Be Sure, winners of the CT100 class at the Plus Vital Eventing Ireland Combined Training competition at Wexford EC \ Justin Black Horse Sport Images
The show jumping phase also had an impact in the CT100, where five of the 24 entries failed to meet their engagement.
This time, eight show jumping penalties saw the dressage winners on 27.25, Anna Stillwell and Goldberg’s Sister Act, tumble down to 11th; three lowered fences dropped Sadhbh Bolger from second to 18th with Lottie (41.5); while, with a pole down apiece for a total of 34.5 each, Patrick Whelan and Harriet Aveling slid down the leaderboard to seventh and eighth with Tomgar Valour and The Minx respectively.
Completing on their flat work scores to fill the first four placings were Rosemary Dundon with the 20-year-old skewbald gelding Ah To Be Sure (30.5), the consistent pairing of Susanna Boxwell with JMHillfield Double Diamond (31.5), John Tilley and Indigo Lily (31.75) and Jane Fitzgerald riding Ballymurphy George (32).
Tilley had three rides in the 12-runner CT110 but only one went clear, the winner Borris Cornet Coole (29.5), Kilkenny International’s ISH gelding by Castlefield Cornet out of Miss Too Coole, by Warrenstown You 2. The bay won last season’s five-year-old Young Eventhorse Series league and made a big impression in young horse classes in 2024 as well as 2025.
Michael O’Toole also left all the poles intact to claim second place with Obsession AKA Ballybeg Obsession (31.5), the seven-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by his parents, Paddy and Mary.
Making his first appearance in the series on Sunday, Ben Connors finished first and third on his dressage scores (29.09 and 29.77) in the CT115 with his mother Michelle Nelson’s home-bred OLS King Aragon (Samgemjee - Just Beauty Queen, by Seamanship), the 15-year-old ISH gelding he competed at last year’s European Young Riders championships, and the nine-year-old Anglo European Studbook-registered gelding Zuperlative.
In finishing second on her flat work mark (29.32) with Martin Coen’s 11-year-old ISH gelding Atlantic Rockstar, Louise Bloomer moved further clear at the top of the Plusvital CT115 league.
Wexford Equestrian is to stage a one-off combined training competition on Sunday, March 22nd with the first leg of the centre’s well-established Stepping Stones to Success league scheduled for Tuesday, March 31st.