Top 10 finish for Bertram Allen and Romanov in French Grand Prix while Irish Eventing riders impress at Chatsworth

BERTRAM Allen and the 18-year-old stallion Romanov scored a top 10 finish in today’s (Sunday) five-star Longines Grand Prix at La Baule in France.

Twenty-year-old Allen and Romanov were one of 11 combinations to go clear in the opening round and one fence down against the clock second time out in a time of 38.30 seconds, saw the Wexford rider finish in ninth place overall.

Bertram Allen and Romanov pictured taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean at La Baule in France, 24 hours before the pair took a top 10 finish in the Longines Grand Prix (Photo: Dirk Caremans/Hippo Fot

Cian O’Connor was the only other Irish rider in the competition and he finished the first round with one fence down and a time fault with the 10-year-old stallion Good Luck. Belgium’s Jérôme Guery took the winners prize of €66,000 with Grand Cru Van De Rozenberg, pushing French favourite Penelope Leprevost into second with Flora De Mariposa.

Meanwhile at the four-star show in Windsor Castle, Cork’s Billy Twomey finished seventh in the feature Grand Prix with Diaghilev. Twomey had earlier also finished seventh in the Accumulator competition with The Irish Sport Horse, Ardcolum Duke.

In the United States, another Cork rider, Shane Sweetnam, took third place in the $130,000 Hollow Creek Farm three-star Grand Prix with Chaqui Z.

In Eventing, Padraig McCarthy took the winners prize in the Section B of the CIC three-star competition at Chatsworth in the UK riding Mr Chunky, while Mark Kyle finished fifth aboard Jemilla. Elizabeth Power was best of the Irish in Section C, finishing third with Soladoun.

The inauguaral Event Rider Masters at Chatsworth saw Sarah Ennis and Horseware Stellor Rebound (ISH) finish eighth, two places ahead of Jonty Evans and Cooley Rorkes Drift (ISH) in 10th.
French riders dominated the podium, with Aistier Nicolas taking the winners trophy riding Piaf De Bneville