IT was a bit of a shock to the system for most when the Belline team didn’t win Saturday evening’s four-year-old development pathway final at Lisgarvan House as they had more or less dominated the young event horse scene all year.

However, the result came as no surprise to Andrew Williams and John Tilley of Kilkenny International Sporthorses whose CFH Cornet Vivendi amassed 83 points under Tilley to top the marks of British judges Les Smyth (dressage) and Kirsty Chabert (performance). To qualify for this final, horses had to take part in one of two training days with Dag Albert and Gerald Bloomer.

“This mare has done a lot of the young event horse classes this year but I think this was the best format so far,” said Williams. “In the Dublin qualifiers, she was always leading or thereabouts after dressage and the jumping phases but lost out on marks when the thoroughbred blood percentage was taken into account. She was second in a very good class at Millstreet last week.”

An Irish Sport Horse by HHS Cornet, CFH Cornet Vivendi was purchased by her owners at last year’s Go For Gold Sale from her Co Tipperary breeder, John Carey. She is out of the Ars Vivendi mare Ars Vivendi Lady who is a half-sister to Vivendi Hero. Now eventing at four-star level under Saffron Creswell, that Querlybet Hero gelding was first produced by Williams for Ian Barratt and it would be no surprise if the Lisgarvan winner was to end up in the same ownership.

“This mare has been brilliant since the day we got her,” continued Williams.

“She knows exactly what to do and while she’s just 16 hands, she is quite exceptional."

"The format on Saturday really suited her as they came into the Main Arena where they did their bit of dressage before Les, then jumped a few show jumps before jumping out onto a cross-country track that had a good variety of fences that asked enough questions of the horses without being too challenging.”

The second and third placed four-year-olds were also two ISH mares. The first of the pair was the Robbie Kearns-ridden Belline Kilbunny Harmony (81.5 points) who owner Richard Ames also purchased as a three-year-old from her Co Waterford breeder, Richie O’Hara. The grey daughter of Herald 3 is out of the Flagmount King mare, Baytona Beach.

Kearns got two horses through to the final 10 (Belline had four in total) as did Patrick Whelan who finished third on Hans Jurgen Kuehnle’s traditionally-bred Tullibards Springpower (79.5 points). A chesnut by the German thoroughbred Duke Of Hearts, this mare is out of Tullibards Mossipower, a Moshaajir half-sister to the Cult Hero gelding Bay My Hero (CCI4*).

With the young event horses classes out of the way, Kearns and Whelan are looking forward to Blenheim – as is Clare Abbott who finished fourth on Saturday with the Mullaghdrin Touch The Stars gelding MT Kenobis Touch (78.5). This bay, who is out of the Lux Z mare Lux So Easy, was bred by the rider’s partner Gareth Carlisle who now co-owns the horse with Jacqueline and David Wright.

Abbott, who won the CCI3*-S on the returning Jewelent, expressed her appreciation to the Lisgarvan organisers for allowing her stable MT Kenobis Touch at their event last weekend. He had to be kept up to his work for his Dubarry Young Event Horse final at Burghley yesterday.

This development pathway for four-year-olds was sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.