NEILUS O’Donoghue recorded his first win in almost 11 years when landing the EI110 at Clyda earlier this month and lost little time in doubling up at the same level, and on the same traditionally-bred mare, Penwhistle, at Grove last Sunday.

There were 33 starters in the Knight Frank-sponsored class here; one combination retired across the country, where only one other had a problem in jumping. Co Galway’s Godfrey Gibbons led after dressage on 30.3, closely followed by Co Down’s Clare Abbott on 30.5. However, the former had a fence down show jumping with Kilroe Lego Land, while Abbott picked up 4.4 cross-country time penalties with Kilcoltrim Cooley.

With his double clear inside the time, O’Donoghue thus moved to the top of the leaderboard on his Edward Ryan-bred 2017 Island Commander grey Penwhistle (30.8), who he purchased as an untouched four-year-old in 2021. “I gave her a few EI100 runs in 2022 and then moved her up a level last year (when she had a best-placed finish of second of 28 at Clyda in September).

“I may move her up to 115 now, but we’ll see how it goes; I’m not in any hurry,” said O’Donoghue, who looks after his own horses in the morning before going coaching for the rest of day. “I’ve a few just broken four-year-olds that I may event next year.”

In the nine-strong Sportsfield/Fernhill EI110 (Open), Daragh Byrne may have been off the pace after dressage, but he did complete on that score (31.8 penalties) to win with Madeleine Lloyd-Webber’s home-bred Teachers Pet, an eight-year-old gelding by Chilli Morning. Having travelled all the way down to Clyda the previous weekend, Co Antrim’s Alex Houston took to the roads again on the weekend just past but, this time, had to settle for second on her flat work mark with her home-bred ISH mare Minty Imp (33.3).