Margie McLoone

THE spring season in the Northern Region concluded on Saturday at Glenpatrick where the Megahey family pressed ahead with their one-day event in spite of heavy rain having transformed the going from hard to heavy in places.

“If it wasn’t for people needing qualifying runs, we would have cancelled,” commented Britt Megahey. “You could barely drive a post into the ground here on Tuesday as it was rock hard but it started raining the next day and we have had some torrential downpours since then.”

Most of the big trucks which arrived early were parked on hard core in both the livery and private yards. However, late arrivals driving into the main field where the secretary’s office and scorers’ unit were located got bogged down quickly, as did some jeeps and trailers, and the tractor drivers were in action all day.

In their ongoing support for the Jonjo Bright Trust, the Megaheys received sponsorship for Saturday’s event from many local firms and Keith McIvor of KDM Hire supplied lots of heavy duty rubber mats for the entrance which did help get lorries and trailers into the field. Even so, some big trucks were parked on road and the main field was practically ploughed up by day’s end.

Because of the entry of 217 combinations (“I think 180 is nearly max for us,” commented Megahey), two show jumping rings were in use and the ground in these cut up badly. It was surprising that the one-star jumping didn’t take place in the sand where two dressage arenas were erected.

The rain, which stayed away for most of the day, had its effect on the cross-country fences as well with the second of two lovely new cottages on a bending line at the Glenpatrick B&B (fence 15) being removed from the novice course early in the day, with the first then being decommissioned before the start of the pre-novice classes. Hopefully, the ground around these will have bedded in by next year.

Thanks to an eagle-eyed Patrick Mackie, a hole was discovered in the Irish bank (12) shortly after the start of Section A of the CNC* competition and it too had to be bypassed. The remaining fences caused few problems, most (including some eliminations) coming at the skinnies of Anne’s Big Chest on both the novice and pre-novice tracks (16 and 14).

Sadly for Katie Good, her cross-country spin ended at the very first fence (the Dairy Table) when parting company from Ballymourne Lily in the EI 100P class where Hollie Smith failed to start on the final leg following a crashing fall while warming-up Gucci III.

Thankfully, both riders were fine, as was Michelle Strange who fell from Have The Courage at fence 15 (a double of roll tops) in the EI90 Amateur class of which there were two divisions.

Best of the Irish in the first Event Riders Master Series CIC*** at Chatsworth the previous weekend, Sarah Ennis marked her return to the national circuit with two wins on Saturday.

Ennis’s double was initiated in the six-runner O/CNC* class where her score of 30.3 included 6.8 cross-country time penalties on Breda Kennedy’s Woodcourt Garrison. The seven-year-old Garrison Royal gelding is among the entries for the CCI** at Tattersalls.

The Meath rider completed her brace in Section B of the EI 100 class with the Miriam Cunning-bred Porsch mare Sugar Bunnie, whose full sister won her yearling fillies’ class at Balmoral recently. The pair are also full sisters to Ennis’ former ride Sugar Brown Babe.

A six-year-old chesnut, Sugar Bunnie led after dressage on 24.8 but had two fences down show jumping to start the final phase on the same score as the Jim Newsam-ridden newcomer Clerkson who had lowered one coloured pole. Across the country, Ennis and Sugar Bunnie were nearer the optimum time to secure victory on the mare’s first start of the season.

Clerkson is a five-year-old gelding by the Sadler’s Wells stallion Clerkenwell out of the former two-star eventing mare Chammonix (by another thoroughbred in Arc Bright).