THERE were plenty of changes in and around the Dubarry Burghley young event horse qualifier held at the Tattersalls Ireland July Show last Sunday.

Because of new parking arrangements for lorries and trailers, the presentation area and dressage arena were moved to the far side of the performance ring, away from the marquee and any spectators who might have wended their way down to watch.

The main difference, however, was to the fences with a series-enforced change meaning that all elements of a fence had to be knockable.

Italian international event rider Luca Bortolamei, stable jockey at Carol Gee’s Fernhill Sport Horses’ yard in Kilkenny, won both Flexineb-sponsored classes for his boss on two Irish Sport Horse geldings who have qualified for next week’s Gallagher Dublin Horse Show, after which they will head over to Burghley for the final.

Their four-year-old winner, on a score of 86.5 points, was the Lagans OBOS Quality bay Fernhill Lord Bailey, who was bred in Co Limerick by Denis Collins out of the Numero Uno mare First Lady. Jessica Murphy also qualified in second with Patrick Murphy’s Tyson gelding Kilcorig Gotcha Talkin (82.5).

Gee and Bortolamei combined to win the five-year-old class with the Suzanne McCarville-bred Fernhill Junior (Je t’Aime Flamenco - Catcher Babuskhka, by Ricardo Z). This dun gelding, who has a small amount of registered show jumping experience to his credit, has had one outing under Eventing Rules - that being at Flowerhill in June, when he landed the 13-runner EI100 on his winning dressage score.

The classes were judged by Joanne Jarden (dressage), Ian Fearon (jumping) and John Micklem (suitability and type).