Ireland’s Fred Scala and Corriebeg Supernova won Thursday’s Ashby Underwriting Eventers’ Challenge at Hickstead.
It was the first time the 34-year-old from Co Carlow has competed in the class at the Longines Royal International Horse Show.
Though the Derbyshire-based Irish rider incurred a 4 second penalty for knocking the second part of the Devil’s Dyke, he crossed the line in a time of 128.84 seconds to go into the lead.
For a moment it looked like defending champions Gemma Stevens and Flash Cooley, last to go, might knock Scala off top spot, but when she also picked up a 4 second time penalty at the final fence, her time of 129.59 seconds relegated her to second place.
Stevens also produced the fastest round of the day on her other horse Santiago Bay, but with two fences down they finished on a total time of 130.52 seconds.
