THE final qualifying round in this year’s Horse Sport Ireland dressage autumn development series was held last Sunday at JAG in Co Kildare where, on a bright but bitterly cold day, Anne Marie Dunphy recorded a notable treble.
The leading coach and HSI’s youth dressage team manager partnered LEB Hugo (70%) to win the Dermot Cannon-judged Medium qualifier (BD73) ahead of Rachel Dowley on Insticator B.S. (69.41) and Sean Burgess riding DHI Kikkis (67.94).
Cannon also judged the Advanced Medium qualifier (BD91) and here Dunphy and LEB Hugo topped the leaderboard on 69.62 with Tara Oliver placing second on Senators Rhonaldo (69.36) while the previous weekend’s Ballindenisk winners, Elaine Potter and CLH Big Red (68.33), slotted into third.
Dunphy brought up her treble in the Intermediaire II where she and Her Highness Willow were the only combination to appear before Donie McNamara who awarded them a score of 64.41.
While the Hanoverian mare Her Highness Willow, a 15-year-old black daughter of His Highness, was foaled in Germany, her eight-year-old brown gelding, LEB Hugo an Irish Sport Horse by Woodlander Rockstar, was bred in Co Waterford by Jo Breheny who would be better known as a breeder of quality event horses.
Oliver and Potter also clashed in the McNamara-assessed Advanced class where the order remained the same. Here, Oliver scored 69 to win on her Oldenburg gelding Senators Rhonaldo, a seven-year-old bay by Rhondeo, with Potter again in her wake in second with CLH Big Red (68.43), her 10-year-old ISH gelding by Womanizer.
Three riders appeared before Dermot Cannon in the Prix St George and this was quite a competitive class as two of them were former national champions.
The odd one out was Sean Burgess who was to finish third on Anita Kelly’s Dutch Warmblood gelding Imperioso WW (67.94), an eight-year-old bay by Charmeur. Sarah Mellor, who is the subject of The Owner column this week on page 113, scored 68.38 to place second with her 11-year-old Hotline mare, Hotshot. The winner on 68.52 was Northern Region member Laragh O’Grady and her ISH gelding Mullentine Emerald Wolfe Tone.
This 10-year-old chesnut by Jaguar Mail was bred in Co Armagh by Heather Allen out of the Cruising mare Mullentine Easy Jet (Clover Hill). O’Grady keeps her mare at Denise Rice Kelly’s Moorhill Stables in Newry. In the Intermediaire I, Mellor and Hotshot took the honours on 68.53 ahead of Burgess and Imperioso WW (65).
On a score of 62.28, Kevin Acres won the three-runner Grand Prix with Con McCarthy’s Ganesh, a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Jazz.
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