THE Royal Dublin Society this week confirmed the revision of the results of the four-year-old young event horse class at the 2018 Dublin Horse Show due to a violation of the Horse Sport Ireland Equine Controlled Medication Rules (ECM).

The original winner of the class in August was Wexford horseman Jason Higgins riding his own Ogue Special, a striking son of Belgian warmblood stallion I’m Special de Muze.

Higgins, who is well regarded in the industry, explained this week that unfortunate confusion over the withdrawal dates of a precautionary veterinary treatment to the horse in the weeks beforehand resulted in the positive test.

The revised class results are now as follows: first place has been awarded to Ita McDermott’s Emerald Emoe. In second is Lisa Rosbotham’s Rosalent, ridden by Colin Halliday. Jason Higgins’s Kilcannon Dude is third, in fourth is Paul Grant’s D’Milo Express, ridden by Stephen Holland and fifth is Tiger Tricks, owned by Evelyn O’Neill and Willow Sports Horses, ridden by Daisy Duggan.

“As a result of the violation, first place has now been awarded to Ms Ita McDermott and Emerald Emoe. The results have been amended on the RDS website to reflect the changes to the five prize winners in the competition.

“This is the only change to competition results at the 2018 Dublin Horse Show. Every year before the Show commences, the RDS randomly select a number of classes for testing at the show and equine drug tests are carried out immediately after these classes finish. There were no issues with the results of any of the other tests carried out,” said an RDS press statement.

LEARNING CURVE

Jason Higgins told The Irish Field this week: “What happened was we had the horse’s sacro-iliac joint treated 10 days before. We were just being cautious with him as the ground was as hard as a rock. The vet treated him, we thought the time limit was fine. The dates were obviously a mix up. We got it wrong.

“Later I found out that there was a form that could have been filled out and had I done that, it would not have changed the result of the class. So it’s a learning curve and very unfortunate. The horse was sold after Dublin, he’s 100%, he always was, we were just trying to be so careful with him,” Higgins said.

Roscommon-based Ita McDermott, who sourced her winning mare as a three-year-old, confirmed that she received a letter from the RDS explaining the class change result and also enclosing the winner’s sash and rosette. “She’s going into the Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale in November so the win will hopefully be a help to her. I’m just going to mind her until then,” said McDermott.