“IT was a welcome, but maybe slightly surprising win,” said Nicky Roncoroni after she topped the leaderboard in the mammoth 33-runner EI110 at Hillcrest riding her mother Janey’s six-year-old Carrigshawn Ebony. “It’s been a bit of a slow start to the year,” she continued.

“I broke my hand and he got a bad overreach in his turnout pen in February, so that put paid to the beginning of the season for us, and this is only his second EI110. I don’t tend to run them that quickly around national one-day events, but he felt very at home running around Hillcrest.