THE third leg of the HSI autumn development series for five-year-olds was staged at Punchestown last Saturday when the honours in the 24-runner EI100 class went to Elizabeth Power and the EI newcomer Breaffy Mandela on whom she had won at the Try Eventing day in Scarteen last month.

The S Creevagh Ferro gelding, who totally dominated the Derval Diamond-judged dressage phase on a penalty score of 12.5, did have a pole down show jumping but still won by a near seven-point margin. Ian Cassells, who surprisingly didn’t ride a winner last weekend, also had a fence down with the second-placed Munchi Me (23.3), Bridget McGing’s home-bred mare by Munther. The first two were the only ones to beat the clock on the final phase where there were very few problems in jumping.