Having been postponed the previous week due to poor weather, the ground conditions this week were near perfect, mainly due to the tremendous effort made by the Castelview Estates personnel along with our friends at Course for Horses.
Local Organiser Catherine Crawford had a huge task in co-ordinating all the changes brought with the change of date but managed to pull together an excellent band of helpers who enjoyed the unusual sight this year of lovely sunshine.
The consistency shown by eventual winner Steven Smith, from Gilford, Co Down, paid huge dividends with a clean sweep of the top three places, collecting close to £2,500 provided by the sponsors as a great incentive.
Steven collected a first place on Castlehill in this final, along with Ferando in second place which moved them up the league places to a unique position of collecting the top three places.
The standard of the events throughout the series set an ever-increasing level of difficulty for competitors to progress combinations, and firmly placing Ireland's Eventing industry at the centre of the world stage.
Sales Manager at Blue Grass Horse Feed, and one of the architects of the Super League, Declan Cullen, said: "I am immensely proud for Blue Grass to be the inaugural sponsors of these events, and seeing the increased number of combinations at these higher levels indicates the success achieved, allowing Ireland to become pro-active in the standard and presentation of Eventing as a sport, rather than being re-active as before."
John Wright, chairman of Eventing Ireland, said: "Eventing Ireland are proud to have had association with Bluegrass, which spawned the Super League idea over the past two years.
"The Super League has been a great success in raising numbers of horses and riders competing successfully at this standard, and we are looking forward to continuing to stage hotly contested leagues at this high level."
The league consisted of Open Intermediate and Advanced classes, at a number of leading Irish event venues.
The developing combinations were able to raise their competitive level through this series, as they moved on to experience advanced dressage tests and show jumping tracks.
Irish Eventing has never seen anything of this kind before, and the expectations of the Super League encouraging people to breed, train and compete their performance horses in Ireland rather than taking them abroad, as has often been the case previously.
All in all, 2008 has been a tremendous year for Eventing in Ireland and the equestrian industry, as the performance riders battling it out to be crowned Bluegrass Superleague Champion and will surely become synonymous with success, talent and prestige in the Irish Horse industry.
Irish Olympian Captain Geoff Curran thanked Declan and all at Bluegrass Horse feeds for stepping their forward vision in bringing concept of the Superleague to Eventing.
Geoff indicated there was now a greater number of horses competing at these higher levels as planned and on behalf of the riders and everyone at Eventing Ireland there was much appreciation and desire to see this Superleague continue to offer good level of competition, and maintain the progress of Irish combinations.
Geoff also thanked the Dennison family for hosting the event. He presented Declan with a silver claret jug as token of thanks to Blue Grass Horse Feeds for their support and a small token of thanks to Declan Cullen from everyone at Eventing Ireland in appreciation of his initiative sponsoring this fantastic project.
Bluegrass Superleague A/CNC** - Final at Loughanmore: 1. Castlehill, Steven Smith; 2. Fernando, Steven Smith; 3. The Jump Jet, Capt Geoff Curran; 4. Wee Hot Toddy, Becky Cullen.