South County Dublin Horse Show was another victim of the inclement weather in Ireland and this fabulous fixture on the showjumping calendar was cut form a two day show to a one day show to try and save the wonderful arenas at the Bagnall's property in Cellbridge, County Kildare.
This show is the final kickout before Dublin Horse Show for many and always has huge numbers attending and even though it was cut down the riders came in their droves.
As always the place looked a picture and the Bagnalls must be thanked for the use of their property and for the spectacular condition of the arenas - especially considering the torrential rain we experienced for the days leading up to the show.
Allan Wade built a super track - it was tall and technical and as always the trademark Wade doubles spotted throughout the track. There were no treble combinations but three doubles.
The first double appeared at fence 3 and was an oxer/vertical and caused little to no problems coming but fences 7A and B caused enormous troubles coming along the fenceline 6 strides from the oxer at number 6.
The other problem fence was number 10 where a couple of riders suffered refusals - fence 10 was a skinny very tall vertical which had a tricky strike to it and many seemed to be concerned about the following fence 11 which was a set of tall white planks off the corner.
Thirty two starters were listed with Edward Doyle withdrawing Utopia, Denis Flannelly withdrawing Epsom du Rochefort and Euforia and Peter Smyth withdrawing Zara's Pride, leaving 28 starters.
Before the class began the prediction was a 5 horse jump off - first to go was Conor Swail with the O'Connor & Swail Stables, Poncho and they made the course look easy, clocking up a clear!
Ronan Corrigan and Coolree House Stud's Citizen Lord did not have the best day in the office when they suffered a fall at fence and left the arena with an elimination. Harry Marshall and Splendido had the second fence down and then continued to jump a super round but finished with 4 faults.
Ronnie Hollinger's Creevagh Duca Diamond was giving Delyth Collins a tough time around the track being quite strong and they finished with 12 faults. Glen Leddy and Michael Leddy's Merljin had two down to finish with 8 faults as did Brian Duff with his own Colette B. Mark McAuley and Sara McAuley's Luciano 175 finished with 12 faults and still just the one clear round.
And back to the jumping - after seven combinations had been around the track we still only had the one clear round from the first rider out, Conor Swail but Marion Hughes (the winner of this event in 2004) made sure we had a jump off when she jumped a super clear round on the big jumping Heritage Spirit, owned by Joanne Sloan Allen - the horse never so much as tapped a rail!
Edward Doyle and Last Orders Club's Effective - pictured below left - had a couple down midway around the course which was to keep them out of the placings today and Olive Clarke had an uncharacteristic round which finished with retirement for Spitfield when the horse took a dislike to the tall skinny vertical towards the end of the course. Greg Broderick finished with four faults on Austin Broderick's Iman D'Occagnes.
Harry Marshall added a clear round to make a three horse jump off when Larkin Brothers' El Campeons Ado Annie jumped a cracking clear round, never looking in any danger of lowering a fence.
It looked like 17 year old Nicola Fitzgibbon was going to join the jump off today with the big jumping gelding Puissance - pictured below right - as they powered their way around the course until the dreaded Last Fence Syndrome struck them and they came through the finish flags with four faults.
Ronan Corrigan, on his second trip around the course did not fair any better, this time riding Coolree Hourse Stud's Draiocht Dubh when the horse took a serious dislike to many of the fences on the course and in many cases simply wouldn't go near them - they collected quite a few penalties today.
Captain David O'Brien and the Minister for Defence's Ringfort Cruise - pictured below - put in a great effort but lowered a couple of fences keeping them out of todays jump off list.
Sarah Kate Quinlivan, who has been doing so well this season in the Grand Prix League did not have a great day today with Billy Daly's Newmarket Girl when they finished with 12 faults. Olive Clarke was next to go, this time aboard the huge jumping Hands Free - pictured below - but today things just didn't go right when the horse jumped so big into the oxer at fence 3A that the horse scared himself by how high he was over the fence and unfortunately paddled on his way down. Olive took the most sensible option of retiring, opting to go home and regroup.
Clem McMahon and the Blue on Blue Syndicate's Hermes de Reve had an uncharacteristic rail down to finish with four faults and Lt. Brian Curran Cournane with the Minister for Defence's River Boyne dropped two today to finish with 8 faults.
As we
neared the end of round one we had the five clear rounds that had been predicted
for the class but there were still four top horses to come.
Conor Swail was next out for the third time, on board his own Nepomuk and he again jumped a spectacular round finishing with everything in place and time right to have three through to the jump off.
Harry Marshall followed with another clear round giving him two through to the jump off with Shirley Kernan's All Shook Up.
Eddie Maloney and his own Cantos B lowered the penultimate fence to finish with four faults and no place in todays jump off and last to go, Stephen Smith and Robert Hancock's stallion, Laraghlease Western Desert had a bad start when the first fence fell and when they came through the finish flags they had collected another along the way to finish with 8 faults.
We were set for a spectacular 7 horse jump off with three belonging to Conor, two belonging to Harry and one each for Marion Hughes and Andrew Bourns.
