Margie McLoone

CONSISTENCY and the quality of both horse and production have been the hallmarks of the top three in both sections of the Stepping Stones To Success League for young event horses which concluded at Wexford Equestrian on Tuesday.

“We are seeing a much better standard and type of horse,” commented regular Stepping Stones judge Ian Fearon. “There’s more quality, more blood and more step to them. They have shown a good style of jumping throughout the series and have impressed as athletic types.”

Eventing Ireland president and top racehorse trainer Jessica Harrington, who was guest jump judge on Tuesday, agreed: “I think the quality of the top four-year-olds was very high and they should make eventers. They have been very well produced; it takes a lot of work to get a four-year-old to do what they have been asked here today. We need to get the message across to breeders that this is the type of horse they should breed.”

Both Sasha Stewart and Anne Marie Dunphy judged the dressage phase at the finals and Dunphy too remarked on the consistency of the top-placed horses week on week. Brian Lusk judged the in-hand phase of the young event horse classes.

The scorers’ job was made a lot easier on Tuesday when Margaret Jeffares’s Ballykelly Notalot, who led the four-year-old league going into the concluding round, won the Botanica International final day competition in the hands of Clare Lambert on a score of 219 points. This win brought the score of the Drinagh-based mare in the league up to 29 points.

The Lancelot mare, who was bred in Co Clare by James Wallace out of Clooneen Cavalier Countessa (by Cavalier Royale), had a big support crew on Tuesday. Included among them was Rebecca Monahan who had shown the winner in-hand over three years to win almost every title going including that of youngstock champion at Dublin last August.

Emma Jackson, whose long day wasn’t helped by a delay on the M50 when travelling south in the morning, finished second on Tuesday on 216.5 points, and in the league, on 24 points, with her own OBOS Quality 004 gelding Carra Lux Quality who holds a couple of entries at Balmoral Show next week.

Jinnie Webb was delighted with the performance of her Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan gelding Shannondale Icarus who finished third under Heidi Hamilton (212.25) while third place in the League went to Willow Sport Horses’ Kilcandra Orestus (16 points), an Orestus gelding with a ground devouring stride who was ridden by Daisy Duggan.

Bred locally by owner Alice Kehoe, the Ramiro B gelding Westwinds Navigator added victory in the Shires Equestrian Products five-year-old league to the four-year-old title he won here 12 months ago. The bay is out of the Porter Rhodes mare Westwinds Clover making him a full-brother to Westwinds Hercules and a half-brother to Westwinds Jack Of Hearts (by Touchdown) and Westwinds Karlos (by French Buffet).

With usual partner Sarah Ennis in Badminton, Katie O’Sullivan came in for the ride on Westwinds Navigator and his stable-companion, Cooley Cosmopolitan Diamond, at Wexford Equestrian on Tuesday. She did an excellent job with the pair who finished second (224.5 points) and third (216.75) respectively in the final competition behind Carol Gee’s Gebaliaretto (224.75).

Ridden by Tracy Walshe, the Dutch Warmblood gelding is a son of the Ferro stallion Rousseau out of Ubalia (by Koriander). He put in an impressive, confident round of jumping over the Dereck Hamilton-built track and was particularly good through the two waters.

He had performed consistently well through the series without winning before now and, on 24 points, finished second in the league between Westwinds Navigator (25) and Cooley Cosmopolitan Diamond (23).

Walshe lost out on third place on Tuesday when Gee’s very attractive grey Gipsy King (by Vingino out of a Calvados mare) lowered the Botanica International vertical first element of the double at three. Another with a huge amount of scope, he finished fourth on 216.25.

“I used the two waters the last day here for the five-year-olds and I think that worked well,” commented Hamilton. “For today’s final competitions, I encouraged the horses to open up a bit. We have plans to remove a couple of the permanent obstacles such as one or two of the banks for next year, allowing us more options for change each week, and the water will be altered as well.”