Cloud has silver lining for Kehoe

THE cancellation of The Pony Club championships at Cholmondeley Castle had its effect on the result of the EI90 at Ballyvannon last Saturday as the winning rider, Grace Kehoe, only returned to Eventing Ireland competition when her planned trip to England was abandoned.

The 18-year-old had qualified for the Intermediate team event as a member of the Iveagh Branch with Killeshin Fifty Shades Of Grey but, when the championships in Cheshire were called off, she headed south to the EI90 at Tattersalls, where, with two show jumps down, she finished ninth.

Kehoe again picked up eight show jumping penalties with her father John’s seven-year-old grey mare on Saturday but, recording one of just four clears inside the time across the country, won narrowly from David O’Connor whose total of 39 on Tullymurry Silver Lining included four show jumping penalties. That four-year-old grey gelding by King Of Mourne was having his just second EI start in the 17-strong class.

The winning combination will be action again today at Loughanmore where Kehoe, who lives outside Newry and has been riding Killeshin Fifty Shades of Grey for about a year, hopes to qualify for Eventing Ireland’s national championships at Kilguilkey House (September 14th and 15th).

The mare was having her third EI start on Saturday as Suzanne Hagan had partnered her to finish third at Tullymurry (2) last month.