THE Leinster Region’s first show of the year was last weekend’s two-day fixture at the National Horse Sport Arena, where Preliminary, Novice and Trailblazer classes were judged on Saturday, while those competing at Elementary level or above were assessed on Sunday.

The highest graded score of the weekend was recorded by the third combination into Arena 2 on Saturday morning, Josephine Delahoyde and Mercury For Gold, who topped the overall leaderboard of Mairin Cassidy (List 4) on 73.65% in the Preliminary P8. Lynn Cadogan’s five-year-old Westphalian gelding is by the Oldenburg stallion For Gold Old out of Solea KS (by Sorento).

On Sunday, Delahoyde recorded a Medium level debut on her first Dressage Ireland start with Klein Roderijs Gold Fee. The Marlton Stud rider and the 10-year-old Dutch-bred Welsh pony mare, a dun daughter of Veenstras Grapjas, who represented Ireland at the 2022 European pony championships, scored 63.59% in the DI65, judged by Dermot Cannon (List 1), and 67.73 in the DI67, judged by Michael Moore (List 2A).

Also on Sunday, there was a graded double for Victoria O’Carroll and the unregistered Laguna, a nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare by Valdez, who won both Advanced Medium classes (65.74% in the Moore-judged DI90 and 62.83 in the Cannon-assessed FEI Junior Preliminary test).

Tara Hayes recorded an uncontested victory in the Moore-judged Advanced DI100 on her mother Fiona’s home-bred Irish Sport Horse mare Sandora BS (69%) before partnering that Spielberg nine-year-old to finish second (63.28) behind her stable-companion Ferrero K (69.22), Fiona’s 15-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Apache, in the Cannon-judged FEI Young Riders’ Preliminary test.

Sophia Doheny also scored twice, winning the Moore-judged, four-runner FEI Prix St George on her own and her mother Louise’s appaloosa gelding Peru’s Casablanca C (67.79%), a 13-year-old son of Kansas C, before landing the Cannon-judged FEI Junior Team test, in which she was the only starter, on board Louise’s 16-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding SJL Jackson (66.21).

Double delight

Sorrell Klatzko was another to complete a double, first landing the two-runner Moore-judged FEI Inter 1 on board her home-bred ISH gelding Gladiator (67.06%), a nine-year-old Sir Sansibar gelding, then the Grand Prix with her Westphalian gelding Turbo (68.15), a 12-year-old Totilas bay. Millie Cosgrave had solo runs to victory in both Children on Horses FEI tests with her mother Sarah Mellor’s Oldenburg mare Let’s Dance, an 18-year-old bay daughter of Sir Donnerhall.

Also on Sunday, Kevin Acres won the 11-runner Moore-judged Elementary DI51 with the unregistered Nybola Turfhorst (71.67%), a seven-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare by Blue Zors Zackerey, while Cannon’s overall winner of the 10-strong DI52 was Sara Glynn with her home-bred ISH mare Granny Jeans Unicorn (71.94), a nine-year-old Jack Of Diamonds grey.

There were 10 starters also in Saturday’s Novice DI21, where topping Mairin Cassidy’s overall leaderboard on 71.21% was Emily Murphy with the unraced thoroughbred mare Lilly Bobtail. Murphy and her Harzand five-year-old were to also win Sunday’s thoroughbred class at the Eventing Ireland Western Region Starter Series qualifier at Milchem Equestrian.

Lindsay Brady (List 4) judged two of Saturday’s Graded classes, starting with the eight-runner Preliminary DI18 where Mairead Dolan recorded a DI seasonal debut success on her ISH mare Belperhill Aint She Sweet (70.83%), an eight-year-old Sinatra bay. Brady’s overall leaderboard in the Novice DI24A was topped by Olivia Linnane riding the Dutch-bred Don Dimaro van het Gildeland (67.50), a nine-year-old dun gelding by Don Cremello du Bois.