17/06/09 A DOUBLE clear round from Sligo-born Darragh Kerins and 'Night Train' helped Ireland to its first win of the 2009 Meydan FEI Nations' Cup Series at Falsterbo this afternoon (Friday). Other clear rounds from Cameron Hanley on 'SIEC Livello' and Denis Lynch with 'Lantinus' helped the Irish side clinch a convincing victory over the world's other top ten teams at the five-star Swedish venue. Horse Sport Ireland Chairman Joe Walsh said this evening: "I'd like to congratulate the team and Manager Robert Splaine for this outstanding performance at Falsterbo. It is a great boost for the sport, and with the Nations' Cups at Hickstead next week and Dublin two weeks from now, we are entering a very exciting time for show jumping." The Irish victory today yielded ten points, boosting Ireland to sixth place in the ten-team ranking, with the USA and France now level-pegging in joint first place.

30/12/2008 DENIS Lynch produced Ireland's most significant result of 2008's last major show jumping event when he finished fifth in the Rolex World Cup competition at Mechelen tonight (Tuesday). Tipperary-born Lynch attended the Belgian show alongside Shane Breen, a competitor from the same county, but neither man tasted outright victory during the end-of-year venue's four days of competition. However Lynch's fifth place tonight on Flaminia Straumann's bay gelding 'Nabab's Son' proved a worthy consolation prize for the 32 year-old rider, gaining him valuable World Cup points from the show's signature contest, along with a prize purse of 7,700 euro. Breen was not so fortunate, faulting three times and also collecting a time penalty in tonight's first World Cup round with Carmel Ryan's 'Carmena Z', but did pick up some prize money on Monday with a fourth place riding 'Milord d'Elle' in the Mechelen Six Bar. Lynch was also eighth in the 1m40 jump off earlier today with 'Abbervail vh Dingeshof'.

23/12/08 FRESH from his third place in London's Olympia Grand Prix, Ireland's Denis Lynch will have a very short Christmas break before travelling to Mechelen in Belgium for the three-star show that kicks off there on December 26th and runs until the following Tuesday. The Tipperary-born rider will bring his Grand Prix horse 'Nabab's Son' as well as 'Shamrock' and 'Upsilon d'Ocquier'. Joining Lynch in Belgium will be another Co. Tipperary competitor, Shane Breen, who travels to the show with 'Carmena Z', 'Milord d'Elle' and Carmel Ryan's Irish-bred 'Royal Concorde'. 'Carmena Z' recently gave Breen a first place in the Grand Prix Qualifier at Dresden in Germany. In The Netherlands, meanwhile, Brian Crowley will compete at the pony international in Wierden with 'Irish Night Watchman' and 'Brooklands Flash Dance', starting on December 27th.

23/12/08 HORSE Sport Ireland Eventing High Performance Manager Ginny Elliott has announced the appointment of Ferdi Eilberg as dressage coach to the Irish Eventing team. Originally from Germany but a resident in the UK for over 20 years, Eilberg was the former World Class Performance Director of Coaching to the British Dressage team. He was also dressage trainer to the British Three Day Event team and accompanied them to three Olympic Games. Based in Worcestershire, Ferdi lived his early life in Germany, serving an apprenticeship with Olympic Gold medallist Dr Reiner Klimke before coming to England in 1980. Eleven years later he took out British citizenship and has achieved major successes as a top-level dressage competitor, including representing Great Britain at two European Championships, in 1993 and 1995, and at the World Equestrian Games in 1994 and 1998.

22/12/08 CIAN O'Connor added a second trophy to his Earl's Court expedition when he had a convincing win in the Olympia Speed Stakes competition this afternoon (Monday) aboard the Danish-bred gelding 'Complete'. The 29 year-old Meath-based rider stopped the clock almost two seconds ahead of British star Michael Whitaker, and said afterwards: "Complete is always good against the clock, and it was great to get a second win on the board at a major show like this." The gelding, jointly owned by Stephen O'Connor and Castlemartin Stud, was one of four horses the Irish rider took to the World Cup show this weekend, and on Friday he recorded his first ever win at the London venue in the feature jump-off class with Aileen Bryan's 'Rancorrado'. The Olympia Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 9pm tonight (Monday) and O'Connor will bring out 'Rancorrado' again for this event, while Ireland's other rider Denis Lynch will be on board 'Nabab's Son'.

22/12/08 A NAIL-BITING finish to the five-star show at Olympia, London tonight (Monday) saw Ireland's Denis Lynch take third place in the Grand Prix and Cian O'Connor miss the 10,500 euro Leading Rider prize by just one point. Going into the Grand Prix - the last competition of the World Cup show - O'Connor was holding pole position in the Olympia Leading Rider rankings due to a series of notable results over the weekend, but needed success in the first round to copper-fasten his position. Riding Aileen Bryan's ten year-old gelding 'Rancorrado', O'Connor dislodged the planks to pick up four faults and lost a chance at the Grand Prix prize. However, fellow Irish rider Denis Lynch with Flaminia Straumann's 'Nabab's Son' recorded one of just four clear rounds and went through to the jump-off. O'Connor's Leading Rider Award would have been assured had Lynch beaten British rider Ben Maher, but a single pole down relegated the Tipperary man to third place and allowed Maher gain the runner-up spot to winner Laura Kraut, which gave the English rider a one-point advantage over O'Connor. Had O'Connor won the Leading Rider Award it would have produced a unique five-star double for Ireland, as Cork's Billy Twomey secured the five star La Coruna Leading Rider Award last night in Spain.

21/12/08 THOUGH Ireland's two riders at the five star show at Olympia, London, failed to make it through to the jump-off in the World Cup Qualifier today (Sunday), an Irish-bred horse was one of just two to record a clear round in a thrilling finale to the major international class. 'Casino', a 13 year-old Cavalier Royale gelding, and ridden by Britain's John Whitaker, went through to the jump-off alongside Australia's Edwina Alexander and 'Isovlas Itot du Chateau' when every other competitor in the class failed to produce a penalty-free round. The taxing course forced all of the 32 riders to push their horses to the limit to avoid incurring time faults, and four top combinations were eventually forced to retire when pressure of the clock proved too much. But with thousands watching, the Australian went clear in the final round, and 'Casino', who is owned by Mandy Hall, dropped a single pole at the last fence to give Whitaker the runner-up spot. Ireland's two riders, Denis Lynch and Cian O'Connor, each collected 13 faults in the first round, with three fences down and a time penalty apiece.

21/12/08 BILLY Twomey finished on a high note at La Coruna, Spain tonight (Sunday) with the 10,000 euro Leading Rider Award to add to his not inconsiderable prize money. The 31 year-old Corkman had back-to-back victories on the ten year-old Dutch-bred stallion 'Goldex' today and yesterday, with  wins  in both the speed  class and today's Two-Phase. 'Goldex' is jointly owned by the Cheshire-based rider and England's Sue Davies, and was previously ridden by Ireland's Anthony Condon. On Saturday Twomey also took sixth place in La Coruna's Grand Prix Telefónica with his own 'Je t'Aime Flamenco', while on Friday an  eighth  place with 'Blue Thunder' in the Azkar Trophy Jump-Off class started the accumulation of points  that  resulted  in tonight's award at the five-star show.

20/12/08 A LIKELY third place was denied to Billy Twomey in tonight's (Saturday) five star Grand Prix at La Coruna, Spain when his eight year-old dark bay stallion 'Je t'Aime Flamenco' faulted in the second round. Henk Van de Pol from the Netherlands won the 1m60 competition, with Austria's Thomas Fruhmann over two seconds slower, but 31 year-old Twomey's time of 49.62 would have slotted him in behind this pair if the single pole had stayed up. As it was, Twomey picked up 14,000 euro for his sixth place in one of the show's richest competitions, where a win yielded 50,000 euro to the Dutch rider. Over in London, meanwhile, Cian O'Connor added to his English prize money tonight with a fifth place in the Olympia speed class on the eight year-old mare 'Baloufina'.

19/12/08 TWO foot-perfect rounds with 'Rancorrado' gave Ireland's Cian O'Connor his first-ever win at London's Olympia World Cup show this evening (Friday) when he claimed first prize in the big jump-off class. Afterwards an emotional O'Connor said: "I used to watch Olympia on tv when I was a kid, and always dreamt of riding here. But to win such a major competition is just more than I could ever have wished for. I'm over the moon, absolutely delighted." Aileen Bryan's in-form 10 year-old gelding, who also gave the Meath rider a third place last night at the five star event, was just too fast for the opposition in the 14 horse jump-off this evening and only Belgium's Philippe Le Jeune came anywhere close to catching him. An unlucky pole down in the final round with 'Upsilon d'Ocquier' robbed Ireland's Denis Lynch of a certain runner-up spot to O'Connor.