BRITAIN’s international rookie Annie Bellamy turned her first visit to Millstreet into a winning one when she landed a pillar to post victory in the Horse Sport Ireland CCI*. Adding just one time penalty to her opening mark (41.4), Bellamy completed less than a penalty ahead of Australia’s Emma McNab riding the Irish-bred Inxs.

It was a tense final phase, and the result was an emotional one for the Lincolnshire-based rider, who revealed that this was this her first time competing abroad, and she was mounted on her husband’s one off home-bred mare Grafik. “The first horse we have ever bred,” she explained. “She is by Grafenstoltz, out of David’s hunter mare Gracie by the thoroughbred More Pokey. This has been the most wonderful experience for both of us, and will set us up nicely for Osberton.”