PHONSIE Wardell partnered his mother Sarah’s Whydah to a comfortable success in the well-endowed Treo Eile-sponsored EI105 class for thoroughbreds which was run in conjunction with last week’s Millstreet international horse trials.

After the first day’s dressage, the ground jury of Vanda Stewart (C), Faith Ponsonby (E) and Paula Geiger (M) had another young rider, Lily Walsh, at the top of their leaderboard with the six-year-old unraced Gustav Klimt gelding A Piece Of Art (31.1). Disappointingly for the Co Wexford rider, her competition came to an early end on Saturday when she and the bay were eliminated having lowered five show jumping fences.

At that stage, the lead passed to Ellen Holmes on the clear-jumping Rastaman (32.5), but they too were eliminated later in the day following three refusals across the country. This left the door open for Wardell to claim the honours on his dressage score with Whydah (33), the most experienced horse in the seven-runner field.

Daragh Byrne finished second on the very inexperienced Joe Blom, whose total of 41.3 included 2.8 show jumping time penalties, with the busy Cathal Daniels placing third on Hans Juergen Kuehnle’s once-raced Valirann mare Kelpie, who had a pole down and was two seconds over the time in that phase for a total of 44.2. Following this win, 17-year-old Wardell was facing into his Fifth Year exams.

“Phonsie and Whydah have done a lot of EI110s, so I imagine they move up to EI115 before the end of the season. They could well be back here in July,” commented Sarah Wardell, who competed the 12-year-old British-bred Black Sam Bellamy gelding at 3* level. “They were so unfortunate with the weather at the weekend, but I knew our fellow would glide over the ground.”

Whydah failed to be placed in 10 outings over hurdles and half that number over fences between October 2018 and March 2020. He was trained throughout his career by Jessica Harrington for whom Phonsie rode out over the Easter holidays.

The unraced Joe Blom, a nine-year-old Mahler gelding, is owned by former event rider Patrick Kennedy at whose yard Daragh Byrne is based. The bay, who had been in training with Mouse Morris, was having his sixth EI start at Millstreet. Previously, he had lowered at least two show jumps, but this time left all the poles intact.

“He was easy to produce in the other phases and we’ve just had to give him plenty of grid work to improve his jumping technique and get him up in the air,” revealed Byrne.

In other Treo Eile news, the organisation’s Summer Sale, an online sale of retrained thoroughbreds, will take place on July 27th and 28th alongside the Tattersalls Ireland July Show (July 24th to 26th). Minimum entry requirements for named thoroughbreds registered with Treo Eile who have a Weatherbys or equivalent passport include record of a finishing score of less than 38 penalties at EI90 or above in EI competition in 2026. Further information can be found at treoeile.com.