FOLLOWING the first three Eventing Ireland fixtures of a curtailed season, there is a tie at the top of the EI110 (Amateur) league and a two-point gap between first and second in the EI100 (A) league.

Meanwhile, at EI90 (A) level, the Northern Region’s Eve McDowell currently leads on 20 points having placed second at both Tyrella events on Nakuti with whom she won at Tyrella (1) and Loughanmore last season.

McDowell could well have thought she had completed a double within a year at Lightsource BP Tyrella (1) despite adding four show jumping penalties to her dressage score of 31. However, having finished on her flat work mark of 35 and closer to the optimum time across the country, Johanna Herron narrowly claimed the honours on her Irish Sport Horse mare Twentypark Empress, a 10-year-old bay by Emperor Augustus. Herron’s only previous start under EI rules was at Knockany in 2019.

At Tyrella (2) where McDowell and her 11-year-old piebald gelding Nakuti competed on their first phase score of 26 penalties, they again had to settle for the runner-up spot behind Kathryn McGaffin on board her brother Michael’s former CCI3*-S ride, the 16-year-old bay gelding Ferros Diablo (25.5).

In the EI90 (A) at Lisgarvan House, Amy Potter recorded a runaway victory on her thoroughbred gelding Tatton Cross, a twice-raced 2009 bay by Mountain High.

With a comfortable win at Tyrella (1) and a second-place finish of two starters at Lisgarvan House, Co Kildare’s Rolline O’Callaghan heads the EI100 (A) league on 22 points with her ISH gelding Splendid B, a 13-year-old palomino gelding by Smooth Operator. O’Callaghan’s conqueror at the Co Carlow event, Louise O’Grady, is in fourth place with her eight-year-old Westside Mirah gelding Mirah Max (12 points) while Christina Turley lies second in the league on 20 points with her narrow Tyrella (2) winner, the 15-year-old bay gelding Ann’s Bob on whom she finished third at Tyrella (1).

With a win apiece at the two Tyrella events, where their rival finished second, Denis Currie and Nichola Wray share the top spot on 22 points in the EI110 (A) league with, respectively, the ISH gelding Arodstown Aramis, an 18-year-old son of Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan, and the seven-year-old Lislan Benedict gelding Springhill Showman.