WHEN other ponies are being woken early and then primped and preened for the Oblique Displays first ridden class which takes place at 8am in Ring 1 next Saturday morning, last year’s winner, Jamie Greene’s Woodroyd Go Go Girl, will be chilling out at home in Co Meath.

Twelve months ago, the British-bred chesnut mare by Woodroyd Toyboy was partnered to victory at Dublin by Nancy Lyons Teehan. However, the nine-year-old has since returned to the Greenes and has been winning under Jamie and husband Charles’s younger son, the five-year-old C.J.

That jockey is too young even for the lead rein class so the family will be relying on Cian (7) who partners David Byrne’s My Starlight in the sole first ridden class. Once the mount of the late Anna Byrne, the 26-year-old strawberry roan gelding and Cian have been very successful in first ridden and cradle stakes company all season.

One confirmed rival combination Co Wicklow’s Fionn Redmond (7), and Holthall Gladiator, owned by his mother, Aine Geoghegan, and her sister Kathy Curley. Just a six-year-old, this roan Welsh gelding by Islyn Bond was partnered by Fionn to win the mini supreme championship at the IPS Kildare/North Leinster Area show at Tattersalls.

Second and third to Woodroyd Go Go Girl in last year’s final line-up were the Nessa Goff-ridden Jasmyne de Sauviat and the Amber Lane-partnered Barkway State Affair. At last week’s Irish Pony Club Festival, Amber (10) and Rothwerwood Statesman (19) were one of 10 combinations from over 60, through to the ride-off in the dressage competition.

The first ridden class will be judged by Philip Hilton who will start assessing combinations forward in the first of the lead rein classes, that for show hunter ponies. The 2022 lead rein class for show ponies was won by Co Antrim’s Amelia Logan riding her mother Ruth’s Sycamore Fairytale.

Amelia (6) is set to compete in the first ridden class on the 21-year-old Friars Concorde gelding Llafar Barthez.