NIAMH Tottenham has a hard act to follow in sisters Sarah and Nicola Ennis but she put their performances into the shade on Wednesday at Scarteen where she not only won both a four- and a five-year-old Young Eventhorse Series qualifier but did so on two full-brothers by Tyson who she bred.

“It was just fantastic!” said the Co Clare-based competitor who has retained ownership of the four-year-old Slieve Callan Solice while Slieve Callan Gael competes in the name of her mother-in-law, Jane Tottenham. “I had hoped to qualify of course but to win with both horses on the same day is something I never imagined could happen.”

Slieve Callan Solice claimed his ticket for Dublin on a score of 283.5 points as he finished ahead of Carol Gee’s already-qualified Ramiros Flight, who amassed 281.1 points under Luca Bortolamei, and Richard Ames’s Olympic Lux gelding Belline Olympic Date (279.2) who booked his place at Dublin in the hands of Elle Toner.

Slieve Callan Gael’s win was much more emphatic as, on a total of 317.5, the five-year-old finished nine points clear of his nearest rival.

In any other week, the runner-up would have been lauded as not only is the Jason Furlong-ridden Tobias (308.5) owned by Scarteen’s Chris Ryan, one of the founders of the Young Eventhorse Series and its predecessor the Future Event Horse League, but he is also a rare full-thoroughbred competing against sport horses. There were the only two to qualify for Dublin from this class.

Tobias, who finished second in the Treo Eile-sponsored thoroughbred league at the Stepping Stones to Success league at Wexford Equestrian earlier in the year, is by the 2010 winner of Irish St Leger, Sans Frontieres (by Galileo), and was bred by William Neville out of the unraced Shernazar mare Moon Approach who is the dam of three winners on the track.

On the road

Tottenham competed at both Forth Mountain and Tullylish prior to Scarteen and next Wednesday she will be heading to Rincoola for the fourth and final leg of the Series. She campaigned Slieve Callan Gael throughout 2021, ending the year with a win in the four-year-old section of the Horse Sport Ireland dressage autumn development series final at Greenogue in December.

Slieve Callan Solice was only broken in December but then he and his full-brother competed in the starter stakes/combined training league run by the Western Region of Eventing Ireland earlier in the year. “I’m not doing as much dressage as before – which had me on the road a lot – and am now concentrating on show jumping which I can do a lot closer to home in Marie Burke’s,” said Tottenham who, apart from Wednesday, spent this week coaching at the Co Clare Pony Club camp at Ennis showgrounds.

“I was very disappointed with Solice’s flat-work marks at Tullylish but Sarah gave me a few pointers which I worked hard on and that effort paid off. I travel everywhere on my own but did spend the night before Tullylish with Sarah which broke the journey. It has been very handy at the qualifiers to have my sisters, and their team of helpers, to give me a hand.”

Tottenham has entered both horses in next weekend’s Burghley Young Event Horse qualifier at Tattersalls show where her sister Suzanne, mother of Wednesday’s Junior/Young Event horse class winner Amy Ennis-Crosbie, has also entered a Tyson four-year-old.

Niamh is married to George Tottenham and they have two children, Charlie (seven) and Sam (six). As George works off the farm for a sustainable energy firm, she also looks after the cattle as well as the children and horses.

Sadly, GI Miz Minx, the dam of Wednesday’s winners, had to be put down early this year. The 2003 Courage II mare had amassed 111 Show Jumping Ireland points under Niamh before an injury picked up in the field forced her retirement to stud.