BRITAIN’s Emily King recorded her first victory in Ireland since 2018 when leading this 29-runner class from start to finish on the Dutch Warmblood gelding Jackpot whose total of 31.9 included four cross-country time penalties and a similar number of show jumping penalties.

This was a fifth outing of the season for Stewart and Vicki Irlam’s Etoulon VDL nine-year-old who comes from the family of Landgraaf. He prefaced this successful visit to Millstreet by winning the CCI3*-S at Floors Castle last month. King took over the ride on the chesnut at the end of last summer.

While King and Jackpot ruled throughout, five of the top 10 after dressage failed to remain there with four of those who dropped out failing to complete along with five others. The most notable of these combinations was the USA’s Katherine Coleman and Sirius Sb who were lying second following the first phase on 24.2 but retired across the country.

Moving up from eighth to take their place, and luckily for the commentators that this was eventing not racing, was Italy’s Vittoria Panizzon with another nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding DHI Jackpot who picked up 3.2 cross-country time penalties for a total of 32.1.

Richard Ames’s horses, young and experienced, have been in fine fettle this season and here his traditionally-bred Irish Sport Horse gelding Chance Encounter VII (32.7) finished third under Robbie Kearns who was also on board the fourth-placed ISH gelding Pisco Sour (33.6). Both horses completed on their first phase scores.

“It was a brilliant event and I thought this three-star track was great, it was far more challenging than you thought when walking it. Listening to the commentary, you were wondering why people were having problems but, when you rode it, you could see how things might happen,” commented Kearns who is coached on the flat with the older horses by Sean Burgess.

“Given how dry it has been lately, the going was great and, while they didn’t water the track, the Millstreet team were flat-out watering the jumping arena, the roadways and even the lorry-park to keep the dust down.

“Chance Encounter (a 14-year-old gelding by Creevagh Grey Rebel) will be aimed at a four-star-long in the autumn while Blenheim is the target for Pisco Sour (a nine-year-old gelding by Metropole). He is owned by my mum Trish and Avery Klunick who rode him at Le Lion as a seven-year-old.”