ON a long day for the Co Wexford rider and her mother Edwina, Ciara O’Connor maintained her good run of form on Tuesday at Scarteen, where she recorded a mixed double.

The 16-year-old landed Section B of the Young Eventhorse Series (YES!) four-year-old qualifier on J.J. Bowe’s traditionally-bred Irish Sport Horse gelding Odyssey Island and Section B of the Junior/Young Rider event horse qualifier on her aunt Sharon O’Connor’s home-bred ISH mare Ashwood Iron Lady.

An ISH gelding by Island Commander, Odyssey Island was bred in Co Wexford by the Doyle brothers out of the Kings Servant mare Rahard Diamond. The bay amassed 284.2 points, which left him well clear of the ISH gelding Drumnaconnell Monza (275.5), who finished second under Gillian Beale King.

As Lawrence Patterson’s Cormint bay was already qualified, Casey Webb claimed a ticket on board Aaron Nicholl’s ISH mare Gleneden Lolo (271.40), with fellow Northern Region member Rachael Thompson also planning a trip to Dublin with Keonan Stables’ well-related ISH mare Bellavalent (270).

Katherine Duffy and Ballyshan Hero won Section A of the Junior/Young Rider Young Eventhorse Series qualifier at Scarteen \ Tadhg Ryan / Bit-Media

Junior/Young Rider

The O’Connor-partnered Ashfield Iron Lady has been very busy of late, being narrowly beaten into second in the CCI1*-Intro at Millstreet, after which they won a section of the Junior/Young Rider event horse qualifier at Tullylish while, on Saturday last, they contested the EI110 (Junior) at Rosanna before heading over to Scarteen, where they topped their leaderboard on 301 points.

As the seven-year-old Iron Man Van De Padenborre mare had booked her Dublin slot the previous weekend, Saturday’s first qualifying ticket went to Liam Lynskey’s ISH gelding DS Conn Boy (288), a seven-year-old DS Are You With Me bay under Godfrey Gibbons, who also partnered him to finish second at Dublin last August. Ellen Creed too is Dublin-bound, having earned the second ticket with her six-year-old Ulysses m2s gelding Heathermore Joyce’s Odyssey, who is registered with the Warmblood Studbook of Ireland.

Section A of that qualifier was won by north Co Dublin’s Katherine Duffy, who amassed 292 points on board her mother Judy’s ISH gelding Ballyshan Hero, with whom she finished fifth in the five and six-year-old working hunter class at Dublin last August. A 2017 son of Celtic Hero BZ, the winner was bred in Co Donegal by Gary Doherty out of the Verdi mare Ballyshan Vanessa, a half-sister to the Tolan R gelding Ballyshan Contender (CCI5*-L). Here, Emma Egan qualified in second place with her own six-year-old ISH gelding Cluain Kingsman (290), who has done a small amount of registered jumping and affiliated eventing.