Castle Hill Riding Club won the TRI Equestrian advanced primary team event after a close contest at the Riding Clubs Festival last weekend.It was a highly competitive affair as 16 teams took part with four teams ending the class with nothing to add. They included teams from Castle Hill, Castle Leslie, Cill Dara and Clonshire.

Time was left to decide the placings between the four teams with the red rosettes going to Meath on this occasion as Castle Hill was closest to the optimum time. Collectively the team was just 7.82 seconds off the optimum time.

Three of the winning team members jumped double clear rounds including Cathy Flanagan (Hilltop Festy), Orla Clarke (Jon James) and Grainne Cronin (Newgrange Danny Boy) while Sarah Jane Murphy completed the quartet on Cillnabradden Diablo.

Cill Dara improved on last years performance to take the runners up rosettes after they were 12.67 off the target, last year they were fifth. Clonshire completed the top three after they were 14.09 off the time.

18 teams contested the TRI Equestrian intermediate teams competition where no one managed to finish on a clean sheet over Tony Ennis’ track.

A trio from Mill Road, however, finished on the lowest score of just 5 penalties after Deirdre Sheehy jumped a double clear on Featherbed Lass. Ann Quinn was unlucky to pick up a time penalty on Elysium while Fiona O’ Dwyer jumped a clear round on Knocklucus Chloe to secure the win for the Tipperary club.

The Coole Lane club was next best on a total of 8 penalties while Killossery claimed third place for the Dublin-based club on 9 penalties.

Meanwhile, a mixed team representing two north east based clubs, Cheval and Killeek, won the TRI Equestrian primary team event on a total of 20 penalties.

Jennifer Kinsella was the star performer as the Killeek member provided the teams only clear round on Nebula Sky. Kinsella was joined by her clubmates Fiona Fox Weir (Dee Girl), Linda Byrne (Drummond Annie) and Cheval’s Barbara Redmond (Archie).