LUCCA Stubington rounded off the truncated Tyrella season with a win in Saturday’s EI115 (Open) on her mother Georgia’s unraced thoroughbred gelding Quingenti, whose total of 29 penalties included four for time across the country.

“He really deserved that so much,” stated the rider of the 14-year-old September Storm gelding, who was bred in Loughbrickland by John Kidd, out of the unraced Montekin mare Iveagh Country. “Although he has won very few events, he has been very consistent and you can nearly always bank on him finishing in the placings.

“We’ll probably now go for the EI120 at Kilguilkey House (where the combination won the EI110 national championship in 2018) and then for the 4*-S at Millstreet. He’s the only high-grade eventer I’m competing at the moment, but we have a lot of young event horses and show jumpers.

“Today’s cross-country course was fantastic,” continued Stubington. “There were a lot of good combinations and Adam (Stevenson, cross-country course builder) made great use of the terrain – I was really pleased with it. It’s a pity that the weather wasn’t as good as the first day (when Quingenti finished third) but, while it did rain at times, it was more misty and mizzily.”

With 3.6 cross-country time penalties, the Irish Sport Horse gelding Dunrath Navigator finished second (31.1) under Victoria Brown, who has taken back the ride on the 10-year-old Lester Lad grey from husband Robbie Collins, while back from Saumur, Ian Cassells finished third on the eight-year-old ISH gelding Millridge Athos, whose total of 32.9 included 6.8 time penalties picked up across the country.

All but one of the 18 starters completed, the Alex Houston-ridden Minty Imp falling at fence 10, The Red Box, halfway around the track.

EI115 (O), EI110, (O), EI110

The only competitor who completed on his Vanda Stewart-awarded dressage score in that EI115 (Open) was Steven Smith, who placed fifth with the ISH gelding Newferry Jagermeister (35.5). The Gilford rider then went on to win twice, also finishing on his first phase score in the EI110 with Caroline Overend and Carla Leitch’s CJO Kann Surprise (24.5), who was having his first EI start since retiring at Ballindenisk (2) last July and his eighth in total.

A winner of the five-year-old young event horse class at the 2022 Dublin Horse Show, the Kannan gelding, who has 21 Showjumping Ireland points to his credit, was bred by Caroline’s late husband Trevor and is the oldest of four foals registered on CapallOir out of the Lux Z mare CJO Curiosity Lux.

Time penalty

Ian Cassells finished second with Greenogue Gigi (26.6), just ahead of Heidi Hamilton on Cavaliers Cruiz (27.8), who had finished second here last month. Both seven-year-old ISH mares picked up 0.8 of a time penalty over the Aaron McCusker-designed show jumping track, while 20 others were also over the time allowed in this phase. There were two eliminations and one retirement across the country, where the fences caused few other problems.

Smith also landed the seven-runner EI110 (Open) on Ryan Constable and Jennifer Smith’s ISH gelding Mike Of Mourne, a 10-year-old bay by Ringfort Cruise, whose total of 26.3 included four show jumping penalties.