THE Northern Region of Eventing Ireland held the first leg of its 2024/25 Brass Stables Stallion Station UK and Ireland winter league last Sunday at The Meadows, a fixture which incorporated the second round of this year’s DAFM autumn development series.

Vida Tansey (List 1) didn’t have too many to judge in the four DAFM classes and certainly very few combinations from outside the Region. However, her winner of what was run as a combined seven and eight-year-old class was Co Kildare’s Tara Hayes riding her mother Fiona’s Irish Sport Horse mare Sandora BS (78.20%), a home-bred 2016 bay by Spielberg.

Hayes faced four opponents en route to victory, but there were just two starters in the six-year-old qualifier, where locally-based Caroline Herron and her home-bred ISH gelding Clantara Lord Louis (76.20), a grey son of Hoeks Ludo W, comfortably held off north Dublin raider John Gavin and his home-bred ISH gelding Holywell Contender (72.40).

There were three starters in the other two DAFM classes and both winning combinations recorded doubles on the day.

Topping Tansey’s scores in the four-year-old qualifier on 78.4%, and those of Ivor Harper (List 4) in the Novice DI21 (70), was Bangor’s Courtney Akkari and her Hanoverian gelding Bernabeo, a tall, chesnut by Benicio. Linda McIlwaine won both the five-year-old class (77) and the Novice BD4 (69.79) with the Patricia Connon-bred ISH gelding Roundthorn Oreo, a bay son of Vittorio.

There were three Preliminary classes, the Harper-judged BD4 won, thanks to a higher collective score, by Jas Hogg on the unregistered Je t’Aime Coco (66.50%), a five-year-old mare by Je t’Aime Flamenco; the DI5A, which was judged by Claire Ewing (List 5) and won narrowly by Deborah Burns with Streamstown Boy (68.39), an eight-year-old piebald gelding by Streamstown Stormy Breeze; and the Junior Preliminary, where Sophie Cathcart narrowly topped Ewing’s scores with the unregistered Máistir Ruadh (70.71), a five-year-old Connemara gelding by Trá Bháin Céilóg.

Getty double

Sharon Getty won both Harper-judged Elementary classes with her ISH mare Taptoo, a 10-year-old bay daughter of Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan, scoring 68.50% in the four-runner BD4 and 67.96 in the six-strong DI51.

Vida Tansey’s Medium winners with eventing connections were Joanne Jarden with Rebecca Millar’s Irish Draught gelding Ballygowans Ready Teddy Go (65.34%), a seven-year-old Offaly Clover bay, in the BD3 and Casey Webb on the ISH mare Aprils Pacino Time (66.88) in the DI65.

At Advanced Medium level, Webb and the 11-year-old Pacino bay also topped the scores in the five-runner FEI Junior Preliminary test on 65, while Rebecca McCauley claimed the duel for honours in the BD4 with her Hanoverian mare Fabiana (60.39), an unregistered 13-year-old liver chesnut by Fifty Cent.

There were uncontested wins for Dale Roberts with Rademon Aachen (61.76%) in the Prix St George and for Laragh O’Grady on Mullentine Emerald Wolfe Tone (65.88) in the Inter II.