The first leg of the Equestrian Store sponsored Pony Premier was held at Galway Equestrian Centre on Sunday 26th April courtesy of the O’Brien family. Despite the atrocious weather forecast the O’Briens were blessed with almost wall to wall sunshine throughout the day which only added to the spectacular feast of jumping witnessed in both arenas.
With the tried and tested running order remaining the same as before the Under 10 Pony Premier was the first class of the day and was very generously sponsored by Galway Equestrian. It was lovely to see some new athletes joining the premier ranks and this class saw twenty eight combinations starting with ten of these going into the second round where only one partnership picked up four faults. Of the nine into the jump off Tom Wachman and Kian Dore were both double- handed with the latter finishing on a zero score with both his ponies. Wachman had a navigational problem on his first mount ‘Headmore Little Lightening’ but redeemed himself with ‘Absolutely Beautiful’ when taking second place with three clear rounds in 36.58. Dore took third place on ‘PARC Pixie’ in 36.62 and fourth with ‘Little Lady’ in 39.34 but the first winner of the 2015 season was Coen Williams on ‘Castle Quarter Hero’ when breaking the beam in 36.16. Williams and Dore are both protégées of Tom Slattery who has steered the Pony Teams to great success over the last few years.
In the 128 Premier sponsored on the day by Ballywalter Farms, there were nineteen in the first round where eleven produced first round clears, again only one of these was lost having picked up four faults and so ten were tested against the clock. Francis Derwin Jnr was well represented with three into the jump off, John McEntee had two as did Rhys Williams, these young athletes contributing to an exhibition of pony show jumping. Seven finished on a zero score with Derwin taking pole position on ‘Buachill Baire’ in 34.36 beating himself into runner up spot on ‘Essenar Jinja Ninja’ 35.13. Ulster region representative John McEntee took third place on ‘Star Spangled Banner’ 36.29 with Connaught native Amy Reape picking up fourth place with ‘Heartbreaker’ 36.33.
The next class in Arena one was the 138 Premier sponsored by Coolmore Stud, which attracted twenty two starters. Eleven of these jumped clear over the Paul Duffy designed track with ten of these going forward to the jump off half of which remained on a clean sheet. Taking the first league points of the season was Harry Allen when riding the consistent ‘Fountain Ranger’ into the winners enclosure in 39.29, hot on his heels was Kate Derwin as she took second on ‘Small Titan’ in 39.61 with Jason Foley making a come -back from injury as he finished in third with ‘Kiltormer Hero’ in 42.91. Fourth place went to Charlotte Houston and ‘Woodfield Superstar’ this pair stopping the clock in 44.09.
Premier action concluded with the Derwin Bloodstock sponsored 148 division which saw thirty six starters. Many of these athletes having just returned from a very successful trip to Fontainebleau where, as always the Irish talent was evident throughout. Ten combinations jumped faultless first rounds with all of these remaining on zero and moving into the jump off. Jack Ryan was the man to beat as he took first blood with ‘Touch Of Frost V’ in 42.03 ahead of Conor McMahon on ‘Lady Capulet’ 43.67. Ryan took third place on ‘Sixmilewater Blaze’ and Emer Kavanagh and ‘Rock Of Dawn’ finished in fourth in 47.20.
The O’Brien family were delighted with the standard of jumping produced by all the young athletes and wish them all the best as they head to the first RDS qualifier in Cavan next weekend.