WHILE some people headed off to Down Royal last Sunday for the St Patrick’s Day race meeting, others made their way to the Napier family’s Hazeldene Farm outside Ballynahinch for the second qualifier in this year’s Balmoral ‘Star of the Future’ performance horse championship.

On a dry and pleasant day, Carol Prime had the task of judging the combinations forward over a challenging but educational course for horse and rider, which was built by Andrew Napier.

One person delighted to have travelled north on Sunday was Co Kildare’s Alyssa O’Neill, whose two entries in the five-year-old qualifier, DS Are You Tom and Dermish Coney, finished first and third respectively. Owned and bred by Derryronane Stud’s Liam Lynskey, DS Are You Tom certainly impressed Prime, who had him on 81 points, while his stable-companion was on 69, as was the second-placed Mr Marmalade, who was ridden for Vina Buller by Conor McClory.

DS Are You Tom is a grey Irish Sport Horse gelding by Derryronane Stud’s Holstein stallion DS Are You With Me out of the Cruising mare Carlton Fizz, while Dermish Coney is an ISH mare by Lancelot. Bred in Co Clare by Susan Moloney, the chesnut is out of the OBOS Quality 004 mare Quality Cruising and comes from the family of O’Neill’s former CCI4*-S eventer, Colacentric, another daughter of Lancelot.

Gentle giant

“Liam asked me to produce ‘Tom’ last March, with the plan to start him slowly as he was a big horse and needed the time to grow and strengthen,” O’Neill revealed. “He is a gentle giant and has a heart of gold, it also helps that he is very eye-catching! He always says yes to anything he has been asked to do and has been a pleasure to produce.

“Our biggest aim last year was to reach the RDS. At each qualifier, he grew in confidence and qualified at Rincoola before finishing third in Dublin. Liam has been so wonderful to work with and so supportive and proud of the work I have done with Tom. Our aim this year will be to return to Dublin again for the five-year-old young event horse class and start his eventing career.

Alyssa O'Neill and DS Are You Tom, winners of the Balmoral five-year-old performance horse qualifier at Hazeldene \ Anne Hughes

“‘Riley’ (Dermish Coney) was purchased from Brian Cleary as an unbroken three-year-old. She was sent to Darren Lawlor to start her career and was brought on slowly at four. We didn’t want to rush her last year, as she could get overwhelmed during competitions, so we took things slowly to build her confidence.

“She has come out of her shell and started to show her potential this spring and I’m delighted she’s already getting the recognition she deserves. She’ll only get better from here. Our aim for Riley is to start her eventing career, as we missed out on the later events last year due to the weather,” concluded O’Neill.

The second-placed Mr Marmalade, who had four EI90 outings last season, is an unraced thoroughbred gelding by Lauro. The bay was bred by Alfred Buller and is the last of 10 foals out of the unraced Supreme Cove. That 2000 Supreme Leader is the dam of four track winners including the six-time scorer First Drift (by Generous) and the Deploy gelding Destroyer Deployed, who won four races and placed second in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Grade 1) at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival.

Six and seven-year-olds

Two of the 21 entries in the six and seven-year-old qualifier were made by Dundalk-based Colin Halliday, who finished first and joint-third on Powers (75 points) and Codys Glasgow (70). Tom Rowlatt-McCormick finished joint-third on his mother Fran’s home-bred ISH gelding Mon Ami Beauvallet, a Centre Stage bay.

The scorers couldn’t split Codys Glasgow and Mon Ami Beauvallet but, although finishing on the same overall score of 70, the better potential mark of Ballinamurra Sunflight saw this six-year-old Warmblood Studbook of Ireland-registered Ai Weiwei M2S gelding being placed second under Tegan White-McMorrow.

The six-year-old ISH gelding Powers, a son of Colandro, was bred in Co Louth by his owners, Eileen Duggan and Brendan Hearty. The bay, who has 52 Show Jumping Ireland points, is out of the Cardano mare Wannadou who, herself, amassed 109 SJI points before being retired.

Halliday’s wife Orlagh owns the ISH gelding Codys Glasgow in partnership with Grace O’Shaughnessy. Bred in Co Galway by Gabriel Mullins out of Slaney Pointillist (by Pointilliste), the Glasgow vant Merelsnest bay has 14 SJI points to his credit.