DANIEL Meagher, a first year Business, Economics and Social Studies student at Trinity College Dublin, gets home to Tipperary twice a week to ride and his efforts paid off on Saturday at Crecora where, on his seasonal debut, he recorded an all-the way success in the EI115 on the Irish Sport Horse gelding A Classic Sportsfield.

Meagher will be on holidays soon and can then concentrate on his father James’s eight-year-old Mermus R bay and the latter’s stable-companion, Ambassador, who is due to reappear in the next couple of weeks. “I’ve registered an expression of interest for the Young Riders team naming both horses,” said the 20-year-old whose winning total (25.5) on Saturday included 1.2 cross-country time penalties.

“I have to do the three-star-short at Ballindenisk with this fellow, then perhaps go to England before doing the three-star-long at Millstreet for which Ambassador is already qualified. Saturday’s track was very good and asked a nice couple of questions while the going was excellent; they always do a good job at Crecora.”

Bred in Co Mayo by Siobhan McGuinness out of the High Roller mare Cavalier Classic and thus a half-brother to the Ricardo Z gelding Hare Chaser, who finished sixth for Italy in the CCI3*-L for seven-year-olds at Le Lion d’Angers in 2020, A Classic Sportsfield was campaigned up to early July last year by Paul Donovan. “He’s a big horse and I think he’ll be better as a nine-year-old,” said Meagher. For the record, the busy Ian Cassells was second and third on Saturday with Shanaclough Quality Clover (28.6) and Shanaclough Carmen (30.8) with Donovan fourth on Sportsfield Lumiere (31.3).

Recent winners Momo Sheehy and TMX Herby and Tom Rowlatt-McCormick with Skyfall Echo had to settle for second (31.3) and third (31.8) respectively in the 15-runner EI110 (J) behind Susan Shanahan and her mother Linda’s 15-year-old Embassy mare, Eisfee (25.3). This was a comprehensive success for last season’s Junior European championships team members who were also on the mark on their only previous outing this year at Blackstairs (1).

Riding for his parents, Michelle Nelson and Kieran Connors, Ben Connors recorded the only two double clears inside the time in the EI100 (P) in which all five starters were Connemaras. The 14-year-old Kildare Pony Club member scored with the nine-year-old Gwennic de Goariva gelding Cornafest Fred (32.3), on whom he won individual silver and team bronze at last year’s European pony championships, and finished second on Meelicks River (37.3).

It was a red-letter day for Duhallow Pony Club member Dorothy Good who recorded her first EI success in the EI100 (J) on her mother Linda’s seven-year-old OBOS Quality 004 mare Cruising Good Quality. A sole success on the day for the Northern Region came in the EI100 (P) via Alex O’Hare and her mother Donna’s 12-year-old mare, Greylands Diamond Girl.

Having been eliminated on both her starts back in 2020, Muskerry Pony Club member Amelia Scott waited two years before making her return to EI competition and, on her second outing this season, recorded an impressive all-the-way victory in Saturday’s EI90 (P) with her mother Eleanor’s Gelato.