ESTABLISHED 35 years, Kilronan Riding Club ran a very successful summer show last Sunday at the Kilronan Equestrian Centre close to Dublin airport where brief showers failed to dampen the enthusiasm of club members, who filled a variety of roles during the day, or the large number of competitors.

The focus of attention was on the Derby course, designed and built by the venue’s owner Helena Dawson who is also club chairperson. Her well-received track will be used again tomorrow for a pony Derby Show. There will, however, be a more formal method of judging the joker fence as, on Saturday the name of anyone who even attempted jumping it was put into a draw with Castle Hill’s Niamh Murphy being the lucky winner of the large Horse First hamper.

That Newry-headquartered firm also sponsored the Derby section of the show where the tracks ranged from 60cm in height for the newcomers’ class to the 1m track for those graded RC100 to RC120. Laura Connell judged the five classes two of which were won by members of Cheval, two by members of Drynam while Ashbrook secretary Jayne Kidd struck in the RC90 on Good News Scotty who was mentioned in the Balmoral coverage in these pages last week.

A 2009 Irish Sport Horse gelding by Last News, Good News Scotty was bred by Ashbrook member John Gavin from whom Jayne purchased the grey as a five-year-old for daughter Shauna to ride.

And it was Shauna, now a mother of three children (Alenka, 9, Isaac, 4, and Tadhg, 7 months) who rode Scotty to victory in the small horse working hunter class at Balmoral this year and when he was second in the older open workers’ class there in 2023.

Both Jayne and Shauna are coached weekly by Nicola Ennis from whom they purchased the 12-year-old ISH mare Disclosure, who was placed on the flat (under Jayne) and in the 90cm Derby (under Shauna) on Sunday and the well-related 10-year-old ISH mare Killossery Khaleesi who was placed in both under Shauna, a compliance and validation specialist with MSD in Clonee but currently on maternity leave.

“I have the luxury of just sitting up on Scotty at shows,” said Kidd senior.

“It hasn’t been me who put the work into making him what he is – that’s all down to Shauna!”

The Cheval wins came via Carol O’Grady on Eddie Murphy in the newcomers’ Derby and through the efforts of Sarah Maxwell and her 14-year-old grey gelding Selto in the RC70. Drynam’s Yvonne Hughes landed the competitive RC80 with her 16-year-old skewbald gelding Puzzle Pop while, on board her nine-year-old Gortfree Hero stallion Drynam Hero (who won his Irish Draught performance class at Dublin in 2022), club secretary Laura Snow saw off her sole rival, the above-mentioned Shauna Kidd, to win the 1m Derby.

Dressage section

Fears that the grass surface might put off entries for the HorseCare.ie and HEC-sponsored dressage section proved unfounded with Copperfield secretary Jane Whitaker (Dressage Ireland List 2) and Jean Halpenny (List 4) having over 40 tests to judge between them.

Two riders, Cheval’s Gerry O’Byrne and Drynam’s Fiona Cox recorded the day’s joint-highest score of 71.15% but, with the far higher collective mark (72 compared to 57), we will start with Cox’s win in the RC N.

Here, she partnered her seven-year-old skewbald gelding Dellrose Boy who is well entered up at the AIRC Festival – in the showing section (in a small coloured horse class), twice in The Irish Field-sponsored dressage section and in the RC70 open show jumping.

O’Bryne’s winning score was achieved during one of the heavier showers on his much-admired Connemara gelding Doon Finn in the RC P3 where Cox and Dellrose Boy finished third (69.62%). The pair were split by Thornton’s Leah Wigmore riding Jessie Jay (70.58).

Wigmore and the 18-year-old chesnut mare hold three engagements at the Festival. O’Byrne and his lovely 10-year-old grey by Newgrange Lad are not competing at Mullingar but one would expect them to be in action tomorrow at the Cheval Club’s Pre-Festival show at their grounds outside Oldtown.

Cox was one of four Drynam riders to record a win in the dressage arena the others being Emma Fristedt on her six-year-old Irish Draught gelding My Golden Prince (66.52% in the RC P1), Jill Brown and her four-year-old ID gelding Mongorry Deano (67.71 in the RCP2) and Hanna McDowell with her 11-year-old ISH gelding Mr Wonderful (66.25 in the open Preliminary test).

Boyneside’s Sarah Killeen topped the scores in the walk/trot test with Bell (69.05%), Ashbrook’s Mairead Dolan recorded a comfortable victory in the RC E with her eight-year-old ISH mare Belperhill Aint She Sweet (70.62) and Castle Hill’s Sarah Reilly riding her 10-year-old ISH gelding Clabbystown Little Tom saw off two rivals to win the day’s sole Prix Caprilli, one of four classes she is targeting at the AIRC Festival.