THE best-supported class at last Sunday’s Connolly’s Red Mills/AIRC national dressage championships in Mullingar was the 40-runner RCP3, which was won by Fingal’s Nicole Groyer with the day’s highest championship score of 145.27%.

Groyer rode the 2019 Irish Sport Horse mare Peninsula Paradis (Rebel Ballad - ISHD Coole Red, by OBOS Quality 004), who she purchased as a three-year-old from the bay’s Co Down breeder Gemma Scott. At the time, neither buyer nor seller were aware that the filly was in foal, producing a colt the following June by Singulaer della Caccia.

At the recent Dressage Ireland national senior championships in Castle Irvine, Necarne, Groyer and Peninsula Paradis won the Preliminary Category 1 title. “I’ll step her up to Novice with Dressage Ireland but, as I bought her as an eventer, that’s probably where I’ll go with her next season,” revealed Groyer. “She has done a couple of events and also some working hunter classes. I’ll concentrate on jumping over the winter and take it from there.”

Groyer keeps the mare with racehorse trainer Francis Casey, for whom she rides out a couple of lots each morning before attending to her ‘real job’ as a nutritional expert with Connolly’s Red Mills, who she represented at Mullingar on Sunday. She attends dressage training clinics organised by the North East Region of the AIRC and had extra coaching leading up to the DI nationals from Kate Dwyer. “I couldn’t manage any of it without the help of my mother (Mary Moore), who is amazing.”

Two others also breached the combined 140% barrier in the RCP3, Tinahely’s Faith Jackson on her 17-year-old Grange Bouncer gelding Kilquinn Pride (141.25) and Waterford’s Fidelma Curran with her 20-year-old palomino gelding Ballyadam Philip (140.16).

Four combinations recorded combined scores of over 140% in the 24-runner RCN championship, where Moyglare’s Zohra Smyth narrowly claimed the title on 143.29 with her nine-year-old ISH gelding Corbally Mountain View (Harlequin du Carel - Lux Gael, by Olympic Lux).

Clonough’s Amy Jo Peskens finished second with her six-year-old Maplevalley Master Class mare Kash Zowies Stardust (143.09), who had been placed in the young horse class at the championships for the past two years. Moyglare secured a third-place finish through Elaine Kilbane on Roisin Star (141.75), with Foxborough’s Louise Lynn placing fourth on the 2014 Badminton winner Paulank Brockagh (140.51).

Twinfort secretary Tabitha Millar Hagerty had a good day, narrowly winning the seven-strong RCM championship on board fellow club member Owen Smyth’s well-known Hanoverian gelding Dark Site (135.9), a 23-year-old black son of Don Frederico.

Here, Moyglare’s Ger McNulty finished a close-up second with the 10-year younger British Warmblood gelding Dionysus II (135.07).