AS usual the Southside Contract and Carpet Cleaners junior equitation championship took place on the sand in Simmonscourt where the USA’s Sally Ike assessed the performance of the riders before in two classes.

On a score of 104 points, Juliette McIntosh, who qualified at Cavan, won the 138cms class on Alexander Hamilton’s Drumlin Rocky, a six-year-old Connemara gelding by Currachmore Cashel. Three points adrift in second came the Ard Chuain-qualified Alayna Hawkins on another six-year-old, the dun gelding Carraghy Apollo while Emily O’Neill placed third with the year-older Connemara Peggy Sue Lue (96 points), by Kippur Alkatraz.

There was a more decisive winner in the 153cms class where Cian Byrne recorded a score of 105 points on board his father Andrew’s Kinamara Dun Boy. However, the scorers had to look carefully at the figures of Launa McCann on the six-year-old skewbald mare CCL Pixie Lady and one of the combined training participants Clodagh Shanahan Rice riding the Ars Vivendi mare Coolfinn Vivendi as both completed on 98. Again, Shanahan Rice came out on the wrong side and had to settle for third.

With the higher score Byrne, who lives in Tinahely where his family is very much involved in all matters equestrian, claimed the championship ahead of McIntosh.