Clark makes history by taking Blenheim feature

Irish eventing celebrated yesterday when Aoife Clark became the first rider from this country to take the feature class at Blenheim, England, while the junior rider team took gold in the European Championships, along with bronze for the young rider team.

Clark had no margin for error in yesterday’s show jumping phase of the three-star CCI, but defied intense pressure to produce a clear round with Fenyas Elegance — owned and bred by West Cork’s PJ Hegarty — after veteran Frenchman Jean Teulere (Matelot du Val), and third-placed Clark Montgomery from the US on Loughan Glen, both left all the fences upright.

In May, Oxfordshire-based Kildare native Clark rode Fenyas Elegance to second place at Chatsworth Horse Trials in England in the nine-year-old mare’s first outing at three-star level. She was overjoyed to go one better yesterday.