THE Banner Equestrian Centre was the venue for Saturday’s second qualifying round in this year’s Irish Pony Society Sports Pony Challenge, where the judging duties fell to Marian Slattery and Maire Quinlan Pluck (dressage), Tony Ennis (performance hunter) and Simone Barry (show jumping).

The best-filled class of the day was the 13-runner Starter Stakes which was comfortably won, on a total of 285 points, by Abbey Cassidy, a member of the Bray Hunt Branch of the Irish Pony Club, on board her mother Catherine’s Darkly Julie, winners of both the performance hunter and show jumping phases.