WHEN you hear in racing how difficult the job of clerk of the course has become in these days of climate change, far more consideration should be given to event organisers who have so many tasks to undertake.

Last weekend, at both Ash Hollow and Hillcrest, heavy rain had a considerable effect on the going, particularly at the Co Limerick venue where Rodney O’Donnell and his team weren’t expecting it.

“Because there was nothing like that in the forecast, we aggravated the ground which didn’t help at all when the rain came,” said landowner and cross-country course designer O’Donnell whose problems with the staging of the event had started earlier.

“We were meant to run on the Sunday but, like Kilguilkey this weekend, we found it difficult to source dressage judges. In fact, I had just one booked and, if it hadn’t been a Bank Holiday weekend, I would have had to cancel.

“Of course, the weather was better on Sunday than Monday when it rained all day and was very heavy when those in the 115 classes were going cross-country. We took one downhill fence out completely, and the second part of two combination fences.

“Those competing in the 115 classes appreciated the fact that we had two tracks going at the same time in the big arena which meant they show jumped before cross-country.

“That’s us finished for the season with Eventing Ireland competitions but we do have the Irish Pony Club hunter trial championships coming up in September.

“They were meant to run earlier in the year but, they could have about 500 competitors and if they had gone ahead at that time, we wouldn’t have been able to run anything else this year!”

First wins

Reverting back to racing, two thoroughbred horses coped well with the conditions to record their first Eventing Ireland wins on Monday.

In the non-restricted EI110, the German-bred gelding Nominator, who was ridden by Sam Watson for his wife Sparkles, completed on his dressage score (35.5) as did just one other in the 15-strong field, Centaur Esquire, who finished second on 36.5 in the hands of Daragh Byrne.

Unplaced in two runs over hurdles, one in a point-to-point and one in a bumper, the seven-year-old Jukebox Jury gelding Nominator is out of a Monsun mare who has bred two winners on the track. Despite the addition of 2.8 cross-country time penalties, Sian Coleman landed the 12-runner EI105 on her own French-bred gelding Wow William who was having his fourth start, his first at this level, under Eventing Ireland rules.

This six-year-old by The Wow Signal, who is one of two winners out of the Nayef mare Naive, won twice from 16 starts when trained in England by Mark Todd. He last ran in late June 2022.

In the 22-strong EI90, Emma Egan led from start to finish on her ISH mare Rusheen Quality (24), a five-year-old Lagans OBOS Quality mare who was eliminated on her only previous outing at Lisgarvan in May.