IT was promising to find that one had to trawl a long way down the leaderboard to find a horse older than seven in last Saturday’s EI100 at Hazeldene Farm and all but three in the top eight completed on their Penny Sangster-awarded dressage score.
With four rides in the 20-runner class, Steven Smith looked an odds-on chance to win but he had to settle for second (Lachain Lance 26.3), third (Sinetta 27.8), fourth (Newferry Number One 27.8) and sixth (Annaghmore Cornoko 29.3, the dressage leader who had two poles down show jumping).
On her only ride of the season, Lucy McIlroy claimed the honours on her flatwork mark with the Traditional Irish Horse Imperial Wonder (22.8) while Alex Houston finished fifth on the home-bred ISH mare My Atlantic Encore, a seven-year-old by Centre Stage, whose total of 28.5 included four show jumping penalties.
This was a first Eventing Ireland win for Imperial Wonder who finished 11th of 16 in the Junior/Young Rider event horse class at the Dublin Horse Show. The six-year-old was bred in Co Monaghan by Amelia Comiskey who stands the chesnut’s sire, Imperial Hights, out of Tiney (by Silver Wonder).
There were two eliminations for falls across the country in this class. Lucca Stubington was fine after Glencarne, who was having his third start, slipped up on the flat before fence 15 but Jonny Steele, the Northern Region’s riders’ representative, was removed to hospital when Georgie, who he was riding for the first time in public, fell at fence five. The Riverhill Stud jockey was discharged in the early hours of Sunday morning.
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