TWO Junior/Young Rider classes were held during the Young Eventhorse Series (YES!) qualifier at Tullylish last Tuesday week following which the happiest person at the Stephenson family’s Co Armagh venue was James O’Haire.

A strange statement perhaps but easily explained as O’Haire’s 17-year-old son Jack won the seven-runner Section A by a margin of 8.5 points while his working pupil, Emma Egan (21), had two points less in hand as she saw off eight rivals to win Section B.

Jack O’Haire is set to make his Dublin Horse Show debut on Penelope Guinness’s home-bred Irish Sport Horse mare Jamaica Rose who recorded one of five clear rounds and topped the suitability and potential judges’ scores both in the ridden display and in the jumping phase for a total of 292.5. Co Cork’s Lucy McCarthy qualified in second on her father Denis’s six-year-old Chinook Eclipse gelding Coolcorron Magic Man (284) on whom she won an EI100 (J) at Clyda last September.

O’Haire junior, who will be entering his Leaving Cert year at the end of August, will be mainly based with Mike and Trish Ryan for the summer months, having already competed several of their Carol and Tom Henry-owned horses since the start of the season. O’Haire senior has had a long association with the family of Jamaica Rose having “ridden her mother”, the Don Juan de la Bouverie mare, Nancy Belle (CCI3*-L), and it was he who partnered Jamaica Rose in the HSI CCIYH2*-S for six and seven-year-olds at Millstreet.

Jack O’Haire is a former member of the Kildare Branch of the Irish Pony Club as is Emma Egan (21) whose victory in Section B came on her own ISH gelding Marino who she campaigned lightly with Eventing Ireland in 2021 and last season. This combination owes their Tullylish success to their performance in the Derby Arena where they recorded one of only two clears en route to a total of 288.

Here, too, O’Haire senior knows Marino well having broken him for south Co Dublin’s Michael Murphy who bred the Kannan seven-year-old out of his Guidam mare Guidams Summertime, a full-sister to Hollybrook Star (CH-EU-J-CCI2*-L).

Also from Co Kildare, Alannah Kelly qualified in second with the ISH gelding Cooley Capri Sun (281.5), a newcomer she owns in partnership with her mother Caroline. Only a five-year-old, this Capri Van Overis Z gelding was bred in Co Kilkenny by Tom Moloney out of the Swedish Warmblood mare Simona (by Leuthen) and is thus a full-brother to the Selina Milnes-partnered Cooley Capri (CCI2*-S).

While acknowledging that this is a class where the horses are judged, Britain’s Tim Downes and Andrea Smith, who assessed the ridden display at Tullylish, felt the inclusion of a mark for riders might be worth considering.