With shows being cancelled all over Ireland this "summer" (and I use the term lightly), Maureen Bagnall and her hard working committee decided not to run the risk of the weather messing up yet another fixture and relocated their show, with a smaller program, to Kill in County Kildare where the jumping would not be affected as it was to be held on the outdoor all weather surface.

With news that Monday's jumping at Dun Laoghaire has been cancelled due to the weather, the National riders were looking for a start before heading into Dublin Horse Show this week.

Tom Holden built an excellent track which saw issues for horses which were not totally rideable - as usual Tom's courses are designed for horses which are well educated and jump with power and scope and these were exactly the horses which mad it through to the Premier League jump off on this miserable Sunday in County Kildare!

The committee did a fabulous job and there were trade stands on every available inch of ground and it was great to see good coffee and healthy food being served at the many food outlets on the grounds this weekend!

The 30 starters in the Premier League Grand Prix were taken fromt he previous days Boswell Equestrian National 1.40m League with the two leagues running their own leading rider section as well.

From what looked like a slow start to the clear rounds, Francis Connors and Auto Cruz opened up te challenge by recording the first clear and they were quickly followed by 11 others who wanted to play for the first place money on offer today.

Today was not to be Fra's win though when he and Auto Cruz - pictured below -lowered two fences to finish with 8 faults in 55.38secs.
Next to take on Tom Holden's jump off track was Lucy Bunn, daughter of Douglas Bunn and new sister-in-law to Irishman Shane Breen. Lucy, riding the very cutely named Little Ear - pictured below - had a couple of issues in the jump off after taking a couple of turns a tad too tight and they finished with 12 jumping faults and 1 time penalty added.
Clem McMahon was next in and he was in the great position of having two rides through to the jump off! His first round of the dance floor was in the saddle of Cobalt - pictured below - and all looked so set for a clear in the jump off from this combination until the dreaded Last fence Syndrome hit them and they finsihed with 4 faults in the very quick tim eof 34.28secs, putting them at this early stage into the provisional lead.
Great to see Gary Quinn back in the saddle at the top level again after a little time out of the ring. Gary jumped a cracking round with just one
fence falling for 4 faults in 40.31secs. Gary - pictured below - is hopefully now set to be regularly jumping on the Grand prix circuit around Ireland.
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