FOLLOWERS of the racehorse to riding horse scene had good reason to watch Sky Sports Racing on Tuesday afternoon as Emma Sweeney, who partnered her own Mr Cosmopolitan to claim the reserve sash at the Dublin Horse Show last August, was making her debut over hurdles at Newcastle.

Riding the Gavin Cromwell-trained Allduckornodinner, Emma made most of the running in the two-mile, six-furlong amateur handicap hurdle.

However, she was headed just before the last and finished third on the nine-year-old Robin Des Pres gelding who is owned and was bred by her very supportive mother Una.

The winner, Wig Wam Wiggle, was ridden by Becky Smith who was champion lady amateur on the flat in Britain last year with 11 wins to her credit while she has now recorded four wins over jumps in the current campaign.

In contrast, Emma, who has ridden in just a handful of bumpers and point-to-points, is studying secondary school teaching in St Pats/DCU.

Surprisingly, an amateur handicap hurdle was run at Lingfield just 10 minutes earlier and this was won by the Seamus Mullins-trained Kastani Beach who gave rider Matthew Fielding his first success on the racecourse.

The 13-year-old Alderbrook gelding, who was visiting the winner’s enclosure for the fourth time in his track career but for the first since March 2015, was bred by the late Harold McGahern out of the Old Vic mare Atomic View.