THE Leinster Region of Dressage Ireland staged the third leg of this year’s Horse Sport Ireland dressage autumn development series at its show last Sunday in CoilÓg where Britain’s Richard Baldwin judged all four of the young horse qualifiers plus five other classes.

Baldwin, who is quick to engage with riders, owners and volunteers, awarded his highest score in the age section to the very much in-form combination of Fraser Duffy and Carol Gee’s Irish Sport Horse gelding Fernhill Count On Me (80%) who added victory in the five-year-old qualifier here to two legs of the HSI eventing autumn development series.

“This horse has it all,” stated Duffy who, on his first start at a registered DI show “for about 18 or 19 years”, finished fourth in the four-year-old qualifier on the same owner’s Aisling Star (77) and won the Novice DI27A on the six-year-old Warrenstown You 2 gelding You Two Hotshot (72.59) who is owned by Gee and Deirdre Lanigan.

“He won his performance final at Balmoral, his Burghley young event horse qualifier at Tatts and was fifth on his only Eventing Ireland start to date (in an EI100 for five-year-olds at Grove (2) in October). He is very talented and could be a top-class eventer or pure dressage horse and, actually, he is a very good jumper as well.”

Fernhill Count On Me, who was bred in Co Limerick by Joanne Murphy Hanley out of the Aldatus Z mare Buttercup Elm, amassed 26 Show Jumping Ireland points during the season.

Four of the bay’s five rivals on Sunday also scored 70% or more, his closest rival being the Emily Kate Robinson-partnered Baby Guinness BW (78.6).

This bay gelding by the Dutch Warmblood stallion Guinness is the oldest progeny registered on CapallOir out of T.J. Foley’s OBOS Quality 004 mare Sesheta Quality who is a half-sister to, among others, the Master Imp gelding Killossery Jupiter Rising (CCI3*). In its further removes, this is the family of the 1975 Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, Star Appeal.

Four-year-olds

Killian Gaffney finished third here on his Marlton winner, the Cougar gelding My Bishophill Rolex (74.2), whose stable-companion, the ISH gelding Gleneden Justified, made it two-for-two in the series when narrowly landing the four-year-old qualifier in which there were 10 starters.

A bay by Dignified van’t Zorgvliet and bred in Co Offaly by Jim O’Connell out of the Womanizer mare Wonder Woman (a half-sister to the 2016 Orestus mare EPA Endeavour (CCI1*-Intro), Gleneden Justified earned a score of 79.80%.

He topped the final leaderboard ahead of the Niamh Tottenham-owned, -bred and -ridden Slieve Callan Solice (79), the dual-purpose Tyson gelding who had been successful at Ower the previous Sunday.

Finishing third here was Sorrell Klatzko with the home-bred mare Dollywood SK (77.4) who she now owns in partnership with Jennifer Egan. A daughter of the dun Luidam stallion Ard Golden Crisp, this chesnut is out of the Oldenburg mare Desert Doll (by Desert Moon) and is thus a half-sister to the Don Juan de Hus mare Don Juan’s Doll who was one of six starters in the six-year-old qualifier.

Here the winner on 76.4% was the Tara Hayes-ridden ISH mare Sandora BS who also secured a qualifying spot when successful at Marlton last month. Third to Hayes in that first qualifier, Gilly Crawford finished second here with Majestic Heartbreaker (75.6) who is by Heartbreaker out of the Anglo European Studbook-registered Flojo (by Mr Majestic).

A daughter of the Westfalian stallion Spielberg, Sandora BS is owned by Hayes’s mother Fiona but was bred by her father Will out of the unraced Zagreb mare Silver Grouse.

This is not only the family of the 2007 Grand National winner Silver Birch but also that of the Cheltenham Festival bumper winners Wither Or Which and Alexander Banquet.

Worthwhile trip

Niamh Tottenham’s trip up from Co Clare paid off when she won the three-runner seven-year-old qualifier with Fortmoy Queen Bee (63.17) who, in 2020, recorded two wins and finished third three times in her five Eventing Ireland starts.

By Watermill Swatch, this ISH mare was bred in Co Tipperary by Marie Deasy out of Fortmoy Shinawill (by Gurraun Zidane) on whom Tottenham finished a best-placed third in an EI110 at Monart in 2013.

The last qualifier in this Horse Sport Ireland dressage autumn development series, which is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, takes place tomorrow at Ballindenisk with the final scheduled for Sunday next, November 20th, at Greenogue. The show will also host the final of the inter-Regional league.

One heavy shower which hit all those enjoying the final day of the turf flat racing season at Naas on Sunday travelled on through Co Kildare to soak those volunteering and competing at CoilÓg but, thankfully, it arrived late in the day when most of the action in the four arenas had been completed.

Baldwin shared the judging duties in the higher-level classes with Liam Maloney. Topping the British visitor’s scores at Medium level (BD69) was Lorna O’Hare with her 14-year-old chesnut gelding DBS Second Chance (68.79%) while, in the Moloney-assessed DI77, that combination could only finished third behind Tara Hayes and Sandora BS (67.29).

There were just two starters in both Advanced Medium classes. Nessa Toher Shannon was Maloney’s winner of the DI90 with her nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare Furst Fendi (68.68%), a black daughter of Furstenball out of the Limmerick mare Astoria and thus a half-sister to the Samarant mare Sambuca (Olympic Games).

In the Baldwin-judged BD91, Toher Shannon and Furst Fendi (61.92) were well beaten into second by Ceara Banner and the Dutch Warmblood gelding Washington (67.05), a 19-year-old chesnut by Don Primaire.

The sole Advanced class was won by Hannah Fielding with her Hanoverian mare Florentina DWS (71.71%), a 10-year-old Fidertanz bay, while DI chairperson Marguerite Kavanagh partnered both entries in the Prix St George, winning on her Dutch Warmblood mare Fidette (67.5). Kavanagh and her chesnut daughter of Westpoint recorded an uncontested victory in the Intermediate I.