ADAM Haugh had just two horses entered at the Northern Region’s inaugural event at The Clare last Saturday and very nearly brought off a double.

Second in the EI110 with JFK Back To The Future, the Kilkeel rider/producer landed the Synch E Bikes EI100 on his well-named Irish Sport Horse gelding Chrome, completing on the winning dressage score (21.3 penalties) he was awarded by Derval Diamond. The next four places were filled by the locally-based Steven Smith and Casey Webb.

In addition to six combinations who incurred jumping penalties on the final phase, there was one elimination for three refusals at fence 11, a white parallel halfway around the track, and one retirement, following two refusals, at fence four, the Douglas Horse triple ditch.

“I bought both horses as unbroken three-year-olds around Newry,” related Haugh. “The winner, who is by Coolkeeran out of a Womanizer mare, was bred in Co Laois by Thomas Hutchinson, but I brought him, and his half-sister, from Bernard Collins. The mare was a good jumper, but I decided to retire her and breed from her as that’s the road I’m mainly going down.

“I’d like to say I’ve plans for the two horses here, but I don’t other than selling them. This fellow won second time out at Clonmahon House and this was his first start since then. You’ve got to look after their record when you are putting them on the market so you can’t run them too often. If I sell all the youngstock I have, I might buy a few three or four-year-olds to bring on until they are five or six, but I’m more inclined to start buying jumping mares and covering them with good jumping stallions.

“I very much enjoyed my two spins around here,” Haugh continued. “Declan did a very good job with the track and everything was really well presented. It’s great to have another venue here in the north and, with his attention to detail, Declan set a high standard with this first event. It’s hard to break into the calendar especially as there is so much on for amateurs at present and they are important for eventing as they make up the numbers.”

Sarah Sproule made it two wins from two starts with her ISH mare Ballyneety Cavalier Imp in the Pegus Horse Health Cubes EI90, despite adding four show jumping penalties to the winning dressage score (26.5) she was awarded by Dermot Cannon. Ella Boyle finished second and third on the newcomers, Assagart Treasure (31.1) and Killisk Prospect (33.3).

Sproule has entered the Michael Byrne-bred Ballyneety Cavalier Imp, a five-year-old bay by Cavalier Land out of a Master Imp mare, in the EI100 at Tullymurry today.