WE spotted three women who are also connected with the sport horse world leading up winners at the Cheltenham Festival.

On Wednesday, following the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, it was a delighted Lois Chappell who returned to the number one spot with A Dream To Share. The five-year-old Muhaarar gelding was one of four winners at the Festival for leading owner J.P. McManus who only purchased the bay in late February from his breeders, the Gleeson family.

Providing 18-year-old Ardmore amateur rider John Gleeson with his first success on his first ride at the Festival, A Dream To Share’s victory was also a Festival first for 85-year-old Dungarvan trainer John Kiely with whom Lois has been working as head girl for the past six years. “We’re just a small yard so to win at Cheltenham is very special,” said Chappell whose previous employers have included Paul Nicholls and Tom George in England and John Queally here in Ireland.

Days before heading over to Prestbury Park, Lois made her debut as a member of Waterford Riding Club, taking part at P3 level in the AIRC South East Region’s dressage league on Dane Sire Henery who she has also competed in unaffiliated show jumping and one-day events at Ballinamona.

While sticking to working hunters with that 15-year-old Indian Danehill gelding during the showing season, Lois is well-known on the racehorse to riding horse circuit and, from many appearances at the Dublin Horse Show, partnered Queally’s Where Now to finish reserve champion to Cooldine in 2013.

As revealed in these pages last Saturday, A Dream To Share was broken by event rider Edie Murray-Hayden who described the Festival winner, now unbeaten in four bumpers, as “a beautifully balanced horse with a great attitude.” Previously, Edie had been associated with Black Hercules who finished fourth in the Cheltenham bumper in 2014 and won the JLT Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) at the Festival two years later.

On Thursday, there was a first Festival success for jockey Liam McKenna and a first since 2015 for trainer Tony Martin when Good Time Jonny came from last to first to win the highly-competitive, 23-runner Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle (Premier Handicap) by three and a quarter lengths.

Owned by three enthusiastic New York-based Irishmen, the eight-year-old Shirocco gelding was led up by Martin’s sister, Cathy O’Leary, a subscriber with the Ward Union who hunts every Tuesday if she is not working – even a hip replacement didn’t keep her out of the saddle for long! In 2018, Cathy beat her male rivals when winning the jumps race for members and subscribers of both the Ward Union and Fingal Harriers at the Ward point-to-point in Oldtown.

Irish team rider

Also on Thursday, Co Tipperary trainer Sam Curling and rider Pa King combined to record their first Cheltenham Festival successes when the Alfred Sweetnam-owned and bred Angels Dawn landed the concluding Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase for amateur jockeys by a neck. The eight-year-old Yeats mare was led up by Correna Bowe who has been working with Curling for the last two and a half years but was paying her first visit to the Festival.

Correna had a lot of success under Eventing Ireland rules as a Junior, first with the Irish Draught stallion Gold Dancer, then with, among others, the Cult Hero gelding Mooney Amach (a full-brother to Bay My Hero). The Co Wexford native twice represented Ireland at the European Junior Eventing Championships on the Ramiro B gelding LCC Cooley while, on her final international eventing start, she finished fifth in the CIC1* at Millstreet in 2018 on Cooley Blue Flame.

At last year’s Dublin Horse Show, Correna placed second in the APCOA performance Irish Draught class for four-year-olds on her father J.J. Bowe’s Patrickswell Sherry and she hopes to qualify for the RDS again this year on that Cappa Amadeus gelding. She could well be double-handed at the RDS as she has a Lagans OBOS Quality gelding to compete in the Young Eventhorse Series which gets under way in June.

Bowe rode in the Up The Yard race for stablestaff at Punchestown in mid-February, finishing sixth on the Curling-trained Some Are Lucky but, at present, has no intention of taking out an amateur licence. Therefore the ride on her Colline Fleurie in the mares’ maiden at Liscarroll last Sunday went to Derek O’Connor. Led up by her owner, the five-year-old Hillstar bay finished second on her debut.

Colline Fleurie is a half-sister to the unraced Belle Saru who, under joint-owner Caroline McQuillan won the Arachas EI100 (Amateur) crown at last year’s Horse Sport Ireland/Eventing Ireland national championships at Lisgarvan House. The 2016 Sageburg mare was also awarded the Treo Eile-sponsored prize as the highest-placed thoroughbred at the championships.