THE third and penultimate qualifying leg of the O’Brien’s Saddlery Midweek Summer Special League was staged by the South Munster Region of Dressage Ireland last Thursday week at Skevanish Equestrian, where the large number of classes, which included non-qualifiers, were judged by Joan Ahern (List 2), Marian Slattery (List 3) and Ciara Egan (List 5).

In the Ahern-assessed Elementary qualifier (BD59), the honours were divided between Gwyn Holmes with Karen O’Sullivan’s British Warmblood mare Hillgrounds Flamenco, a nine-year-old bay by Franklyn Sugar, and the day’s busiest rider, Caroline Marwood, on Hannah Rose’s Dutch Warmblood gelding Investigator P. The pair recorded scores of 68.28% with collectives of 55.

Marwood and the 11-year-old Diamant de Semilly chesnut also contested the Slattery-judged Medium qualifier (DI65), which was won by Rosemarie Ahern O’Gorman on her US-bred ex-racehorse Khwarizmi (62.66). This nine-year-old bay gelding by Algorithms, who won once in 10 starts, last ran for the David Marnane yard in early July 2019.

Sue Smallman won the duel for honours in the Joan Ahern-judged Prix St George qualifier, where she scored 69.56% with Gloriant H, her 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Uphill.

Combinations

Eight combinations came before Joan Ahern in the Novice qualifier (DI27A), which was won narrowly by 11-year-old Amber Lane on the 20-year-old Rotherwood Statesman gelding Barkway State Affair (70.52%). The highest score in the Marian Slattery-judged Preliminary qualifier (DI8) was achieved by Laura Hagger on her six-year-old mare Aon Rud Eile (69.62).

The only rider to appear before Ciara Egan in the Intro qualifier was Katie McKeon, who achieved a score of 70.88% for her test on the Connemara mare Galtee Honey. This four-year-old by Kinvara Boy is out of the Lishmar Shadow mare Bean Uachtair, a full-sister to Galtee Setanta who, last Saturday at Tullylish, qualified for the Connemara performance hunter championship at Dublin.

Egan also judged the three-runner Mini Trailblazers qualifier won by Clara Nyhan on board her mother Emily’s 16-year-old piebald mare Molly Dot Com (69.78%).

The highest score of the day, 71%, was recorded by two of the nine starters in the Marian Slattery-judged non-qualifying Preliminary BD15 viz Amber Lane on Barkway State Affair and Caroline Marwood with the unregistered ‘Silver’.

Qualifiers

Entries for the last of the O’Brien’s Saddlery Midweek Summer Special qualifiers close at 11.45pm tomorrow, Sunday. This will take place on Thursday next, June 20th, at Ballindenisk, venue for a Dressage Ireland training camp over the weekend of June 29th and 30th, the South Munster championships on July 28th and for DI’s national championships (September 6th to 8th).