LIMERICK’S Robbie Kearns and Belline Thistle Bethelasttime were the deserved winners of the Donagh Hickey Motors CCI2*-L class at Millstreet International after they kept a clean sheet to finish on their dressage score of 29.4 penalties.

Speaking after his win Robbie said: “It was a really good win for this mare, I’m delighted that it all came together this weekend as I think she’s really talented but she has been a little tricky to produce.” Belline Thistle Bethelasttime is a seven-year-old mare by Grafenstolz bred by Johnston Brodie, who competed at Le Lion d’Angers last year in the six-year-old championships where she slipped and fell on the flat out on the cross-country course.

“She went really well all week and I couldn’t have asked more of her. The course was testing with strong water and lots of corners but I think she will have learned a lot from it.” This combination were winners of the Cooley Farm CCIYH2* (six and seven-year-olds) at Lisgarvan House International in 2024 so are no strangers to the winners circle.

Australia’s Kevin McNab will have been pleased to add another podium finish to his week at Millstreet when he finished second on Chanel RF, also finishing on their dressage score. The seven-year-old mare is owned by McNab’s wife Emma, along with Francesca Pollara and Ridgeway Farm Stud. This combination sat in fourth place after dressage on a score of 30.7 but steadily climbed the leaderboard after each phase.

Italian rider Giovanni Ugolotti and Magherard Candy (ISH) impressed the ground jury of Wiebke Hennig (GER) and John Lyttle (IRL) to sit on top of the leaderboard just 0.1 ahead of eventual winner Kearns. The first fence on the floor in the show jumping arena handed the winner to the aforementioned combination and left Ugolotti and the Sligo Candy Boy gelding to settle for eventual third.

Jack Pinkey and DHI Ayton came into the final phase in fourth place but a pole down meant they had to settle for 10th.