SATURDAY at The Clare was a red letter day for Ellen Douglas who, on her only ride at the fixture, recorded her first success against senior opposition on her mother Elaine’s Irish Sport Horse mare Downshire Rock (32.3 penalties).

There were 18 starters in the Vitafloor EI110, but only Douglas and the nine-year-old Ringfort Cruise mare, who was bred in Co Down by David Mathers, out of Darcey Bussell (by Crosstown Dancer), and Andrew Napier, who finished fourth on his similarly-aged home-bred Centre Stage mare Hazeldene Elsa (36.5), completed on their Dermot Cannon-awarded dressage scores.

Locally-based Steven Smith led after the flat work phase on Tullaher Paudie (29.3), but picked up time penalties on both jumping phases to drop to third on a total of 36.1 as, with the addition of 1.2 show jumping time penalties, Adam Haugh moved up into second on FJK Back To The Future (32.7).

There was one cross-country retirement at fence seven, a corner, and one elimination for cumulative refusals. There were also two eliminations concerning fence 17, the Tullyraine Equine Clinic water. Emily Corbett was eliminated when leaving out this obstacle with the first of her three rides in the class, Carrick Kilderrys Magic, while Ralph Robinson probably wished he had done the same as he and Lanigan O fell here.

Plans afoot

“I was out of Juniors at the end of last year and am delighted to get this first win as a Young Rider,” said 18-year-old Douglas who has Downshire Rock entered in the EI110 at Tullymurry today. “The plan with the mare would be to run in the two-star long at Kilguilkey, then step up to intermediate and do a two-star short towards the end of the season. I’d like to be in contention for the Young Riders’ team next season, although I’m going to go to the US to work for a while next year and then Britain, so we’ll just have to see how things go. As you know, every horse is for sale here.

“I’ve been getting coaching on the flat from Penny Sangster and Heather Coyle is my jumping coach. This mare has been jumping up to 1.20m and I think she can go higher. She had no problem with the cross-country track and I loved it. It was great jumping through hedges and over ditches. It was a brilliant use of space, resulting in an attacking course. I thought it was a good idea to keep the time tight in the show jumping phase, as it made it more competitive.”

Douglas’ parents Elaine and Hugh were both at the event. Raymond Bready, who shared the cross-country commentary duties with Peter Quirke, spotted Hugh near the start box and did a great job of promoting Hugh’s talents for selling horses – any better and poor Ellen might have had to tackle the cross-country course on foot.

The very much in-form Lucy McIlroy comfortably landed the seven-strong Cullen Equine Solutions EI110 Open on her mother Angela’s ISH gelding Major Black. Traditionally-bred by Amelia Comiskey, the 13-year-old Imperial Hights gelding added time penalties in both jumping phases to his winning dressage score for a total of 29.5. Making their seasonal debuts, Toni Quail finished second with Wellan Summertime (35.7).