MIKEY Pender brought his winning tally at the 2022 Dublin Horse Show to seven classes when landing victory in Sunday morning’s six-year-old Cruising championship.

Riding Marion Hughes’ home-bred HHS Rose (Lamm de Fetan x Don Juan de la Bouverie), he was the best of four clears in the six-horse jump-off to win another championship for the Kilkenny stable.

Speaking after the victory, Pender said of the mare: “She’s unbelievable. She was third in Millstreet in the Boomerang and then she was brilliant here all week. She’s very smart and wants to be very good.

“Her next show will be the Breeders’ Classic next week and then Lanaken. She could be a very good mare. She has an easy way of jumping and she could be a real star.”

Team work

Pender thanked his team for their work during what was an incredible week.

“We’ve had a great week. All the horses have done well. I couldn’t do it without the team behind me. They were fantastic with everything in place to allow me to do my best.

“Hopefully we can continue to do well in Valkenswaard this week where I’ll be competing with HHS Calais, Los Angeles and Fortune.”

Sixteen combinations qualified for the final in the six-year-old division. Of these just six produced a clear first round to proceed to the jump-off.

First to go against the clock was Gemma Phelan riding Dan Galavan’s Lisdara Clooney (Cruising Arish x Touchdown).They had the second part of the double down for four faults in a time of 39.17 which would leave them eventual sixth place.

Next to go was the winners of Thursday’s qualifier, Brendan Murphy and Susan Fitzpatrick’s Grennanstown Max A Million (KEC Maximum Joe x OBOS Quality). They shot to the top of the leader board when crossing the finish in 34.18, which would eventually see them finish in second place.

Vincent Byrne, riding Killavallig Farm’s stallion Quality Time Van het Heieinde (Elvis Ter Putte x Kashmir Van Schuttershof) also left all the fences up, in a time of 34.94 for third place.

Pender was next. A calm and accurate ride from the 22-year-old saw them sail through the finish in time of 32.62 to head proceedings.

The penultimate pair in, Jennifer Kuehnle with her father Hans Kuehnle’s Tullibards Bennys Special (Tullibards Bennys Legacy x Cavalier Royale) posted the only other clear round, but in a slower pace, breaking the beam in 44.18 which would be good enough for fourth.

Last to go was Ethen Ahearne with Pat Kehoe’s home-bred mare ABC Saving Grace (Kannan x Cruising). They collected four faults in 34.88 which left them in fifth place as the fastest four faulter.