Riding club autumn league well underway

By Rachel Carton

THE North West Riding Clubs’ autumn league is well underway, with two legs under the belt (or perhaps that should read girth?) and just the final left to look forward to now.

The Letterkenny and Tirconaill clubs combined to run the first leg in Greenacres Equestrian. The show offered dressage classes as well as the league show-jumping and was well supported by all the county’s clubs.

The Inishowen club ran the second leg at Lenamore stables on Sunday 30th, and riders made great efforts with their fancy dress costumes as well as their jumping efforts.

The weather was incredibly kind on the day, offering bright sunshine and a mild, but quite strong, wind.

In the RC70 class the win went to Stracomer as Eimear Dunne rode Dunard Ruby to victory. This division is very tight on the league leader board as both Eimear Dunne and Grace Rodgers are sitting on twelve points apiece, meaning it’s all to play for at the final.

Liz Potter put the Donegal Gaeltacht club on the map in the RC80 class as her long-time partner Clyde carried her to victory. This puts Liz nicely ahead of closest rival Veronica Lafferty on the score board, but as Veronica has recently returned to the competitive arena after a long illness I’m sure she’ll be hungry for the win at the final and will give Liz a run for her money.

The RC90 class went South, quite literally, as Therese And-erson of the BenBulben club proved unbeatable on her con-nemara Misneach.

The win brings Therese within one point of league leader Charlie Vial who won the class at the first show and came second at Lenamore.

Some nail-biting action is promised in the jump-offs at the final.

In the RC100 Tirconaill’s Mark Ward enjoyed a walk-over as he rode Wild Child to an uncontested win. The only person who can clip Mark’s wings now is Letterkenny’s Caoimhe Chambers who won the class at the first leg and could well pull off another victory at the final.

Join the clubs for a great day of sport at Necarne Castle on November 13.

In affiliated jumping it was great to see Tyrone Flanagan pick up the win in the 1.20 speed championship at Portmore EC. Tyrone was riding the Ruairi Holmes owned gelding Coloo Colin and his time of 54.46 was too good for the other competitors in the jump-off.

This was only his fifth show on the gelding, having picked up the ride on the 12yr old in September.

Between the white rails of the country’s racetracks Dylan Browne McMonagle is counting down the days to the end of the current flat racing season as his lead in the champion apprentice race is pretty much unassailable at this stage.

Having ridden a nice double on October 19 at Navan, Dylan followed up with a quick victory at the French track Saint-Cloud on the 22nd.

He stands to follow in the footsteps of Oisin Orr who took home the Champion Apprentice Cup for a second time in 2019.

Also listed amongst the top ten apprentice jockeys in the country is Rathmullan’s Luke McAteer who, along with Dylan, will face the prospect of turning professional with the coming of the new season.