ANNE O’Connor, executive officer of Treo Eile, attended Wednesday’s first leg of the Stepping Stones to Success league, where she was not only delighted that nine of the 10 entries stood their ground in the thoroughbred class, but that there were a number of new faces among the riders.

One of these was Brittas Bay-based Ellen Carroll who won, on her dressage mark (30), with Simon, whose name is not registered with Weatherbys. An eight-year-old by September Storm, the bay was bred by Eammon and Shauna Rice out of the unraced Supreme Leader mare Snob’s Supreme, a half-sister to the Religously gelding Macs Joy, whose nine wins included four Grade 1 hurdle races.

“I got this fellow in February to produce for sale for a client,” said Carroll, who also competed in the four-year-old and pony producers’ class on Wednesday, mixing horses with her studies in sports therapy at Portobello College. “He will do the second leg of the league next Wednesday, before heading to Mullingar for the Dressage Ireland national winter finals. He just started competing with Dressage Ireland this year and has qualified for the Category 2 Preliminary and Novice finals; he always scores highly.”

With four jumping penalties, former amateur jockey Helen Mooney finished second on Mandamus (41), her 12-year-old Lawman gelding, who won two races on the flat, while Leah Kent slotted into third, on her flat work mark (41.5) with an unnamed five-year-old mare by Sans Frontiers.