Duffy features in Villamoura

Ponies and young riders

Frank Mulvihill

Martin Duffy from Ballina got his 2004 season off to a good start when finishing in 5th place in a 1.20m/1.25m Table A Speed class at Villamoura, Portugal, last Saturday.

Riding Little Midget, Duffy had a clear round but neither he nor any of the other 38 competitors could match the fast round of Portugal's Filipa Teixeira riding Diamant Precieux, who won the class.

Duffy, who is eligible for junior selection this year, featured with the same horse in the 1.30 Speed Class class at Millstreet last autumn. Also in Portugal, amateur rider Joanne Sloane Allen finished second with Madison in a 1.15m class, and Kilkenny rider Lizzie Burcher finished 4th with Guy Cavalier in the seven year-old class.

RDS Novice Pony class change

The SJAI executive committee recently made the decision to alter the rules governing the RDS Novice Pony competition from 2005. The traditional 148BC pony class became the five, six, seven-year-old class a few years ago, but from 2005 will be restricted to six and seven-year-old ponies only. In the meantime, all ponies competing in the class as it exists must have accumulated 50 points by the end of the previous season.

Pony measuring dates

With SJAI pony measuring beginning last December most regions have held a number of pony measurings to date, but a few opportunities still remain before the published list has expired. In Leinster, SJAI members have two venues to choose from. Kill will host the first on 7 March, while Portlaoise has another on 24 March.

In the northern region, there will be a measuring at Danescroft Equestrian Centre in Lisburn on 10 March, and Munster will host one on 20 March at O'Gorman's in Cahir. For ponies that have yet to be measured, there is a new development this year concerning temporary registration tickets.

The steward at each show will issue a new temporary registration ticket at a cost of €7 which will be valid for two competitions on the same day. Under the new system, a book of these TR tickets will be allocated to each steward and will contain a counterfoil as a record of tickets issued.

The use of TR tickets has been open to abuse in the past with some questions being raised about the amount of TR ticket income returned to the SJAI. The system will also apply to horses.