THERE was a return to the usual format of just one class for Junior/Young Event riders as the second of the Young Eventhorse Series qualifiers took place at Tullylish on Wednesday.

There was a good representation of competitors from across the country with the win, on 301.5 points, being split between the locally-born but now Co Kilkenny-based Caitie Slater, who joined the team at Richard Ames’s Belline Estate just over a year ago, and Ballinasloe’s Godfrey Gibbons, winner of The Irish Field junior event rider of the year award for 2020.

Twenty-one year-old Slater won on the Ames-owned Kief Amazing Marco, a five-year-old Luidam gelding who was bred in Co Cork by Barbara Bowles out of the Cruise On mare Cruise Countess. On his most recent start under Eventing Ireland rules, the grey/roan won the EI100 at Rosanna (2).

Gibbons’s mount was his mother Marie Dunne’s Milchem Miami, a Glasgow van’t Merelsnest mare who was bred in Co Galway by Ralph Conroy out of Mullentine White Diesel (by Corland). This combination has only once finished outside the top six in eight outings this season, that when eliminated for a navigational issue at Hillcrest (1), a matter put right with a win at the same venue on their next start.

Both winners qualified for Dublin on Thursday as did Chloe Fagan in third with Carol Gee’s six-year-old Orestus gelding Tyrella Enzo (296) and Slater again with Ames’s similarly-aged Future Trend mare Belline Rock Trend who finished fourth on 295.

“I’ve been riding for Richard and Tanja for just over a year and love it, who wouldn’t when we get to ride so many lovely young horses in great facilities,” said Slater. “I’m the youngest member of the team and am learning so much from all the others. My job is primarily producing the younger horses, something I’m passionate about.

“Thursday was a big day for me as it was the first time I travelled the horses on my own. We left Belline at 7.30 in the morning and, while it was a bit of a drive up, I was excited to get competing in the North again and catching up with some people that I haven’t seen for a couple of years.”

Gibbons, who has just turned 18, mainly events horses owned by his mother but also has the ride on a couple of horses for Hans Kuehnle. He represented Ireland at last year’s European Junior eventing championships in Sweden on Milchem Free Spirit with whom, in May, he finished fourth in the CCI2*-L at Millstreet. Like Milchem Miami, that 10-year-old Contra A mare was bred by Ralph Conroy with whom Gibbons worked and trained last summer.