All systems go for trials

Blarney Castle, where the horse trials get under way this morning with two full days of dressage, plays host to the first international three-day event in Ireland this year. The popular Co Cork fixture was itself put back a month because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Punchestown usually opens the Irish three-day event calendar in May. That was an early victim of the foot-and-mouth crisis and, although there had been hopes that the fixture could be rescheduled for June, it has now been scrapped and will not even feature on the autumn calendar.

But Blarney event director Georgina Colthurst was determined to go ahead and, even before the foot-and-mouth restrictions were relaxed, she had everything on line waiting for the official okay.

Foreign entries are slightly down this year due both to foot-and-mouth and the change of date, but there are still seven countries represented, with riders from Britain, New Zealand, America, Switzerland, Holland and Sweden taking on the home side.

Numerically, the strongest class is the one-star, a competition for horses just breaking through into the international ranks. A total of 47 line out for this, but there are only two less in the two-star, which is the next rung up the ladder on the way up to the top four-star level.

There are also 18 junior combinations, which will run over the one-star cross-country and, new in this exceptional year, the Blarney organisers have added in a nominal three-star.

This was put in at the request of the selectors, who want to see the top horses in action before drawing up a longlist for the European championships, which will be held in Pau, France in Ocotober.

The senior horses will perform the three/four-star test in front of the castle tomorrow afternoon and will then be first to tackle the two-star cross-country after both the one-star and junior competitions are completed.

The two-star horses will be last to jump on Saturday over a cross-country test conceived by Sydney Olympic course designer Mike Etherington-Smith.

Dressage gets underway at 8.30 this morning in the one-star arena.