20/05/08 IRELAND finished in third place in the four star Nations Cup at Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday. Two Irish Sport Horses featured on the team, Francis Connors (Irl) & Merlins Magic (ISH) and Neal Fearon (Irl) & Teulada (ISH). In eventing, Irish Sport Horses featured in the results at Saumur, Chepstow and Brigstock. In the CIC**, the best of the Irish were Steven Smith (Irl) & Castlehill (ISH) and Elizabeth Power (Irl) & Doonaveeragh O One (ISH), who finished in seventeenth and nineteenth place respectively.

20/05/08 THE SECOND leg in the Irish Sport Horse Studbook Showjumping Series took place at Cavan Show, which ran from 16th to 18th May. There was €10,000 in prize money plus €800 in breeders' prizes on offer at the show. After winning the 5 Year Old Final at Louth, John Floody and Coppindell (ISH) continued on their winning form when they took the final at Cavan, jumping clear in the jump off in a time of 45.50 seconds. The 5 year old final saw a very high standard of jumping from the young Irish Sport Horses with three double clear rounds. In the 6/7 Year Old Final eight horses made it through to the jump off. Third to go was Darragh Kenny and Portphillip Cruzcrew (ISH) who jumped clear in the excellent time of 46.97, to go into the lead. However, with the Louth Final winners John Floody and Larkhill Cruiser (ISH) yet to go, the class remained undecided. Last into the arena, the pair set a tremendous pace and finished in a time of 43.24 seconds but were unfortunate to have the penultimate fence down. The 6/7 Year Old Final therefore went to Darragh Kenny and the 6 year old Cruising (ISH) mare, Portphillip Cruzcrew (ISH).

20/05/08 HORSE Sport Ireland Show Jumping Team Manager Robert Splaine has announced his squad for the second round of the Samsung Super League which takes place in Rome on Friday (May 23). The squad sees one change from the team that secured joint second place in the first round in La Baule in France two weeks ago, with Jessica Kurten coming in for Captain Shane Carey. The squad, in alphabetical order, is: Marie Burke; Chippison Edward Doyle; Sequoyah Farms Utopia Jessica Kurten; Quibell Denis Lynch; Lantinus Cian O'Connor; Irish Independent Echo Beach Commenting on Jessica Kurten's return to the squad, Team Manager Robert Splaine said: ''Any Team Manager would be delighted to be able to call on the second highest ranked rider in the world with a horse like Quibell and it will give the squad a further boost after the good result in La Baule.''

A PROMISING start by Ireland's non-Super League Nations Cup team at Lisbon, Portugal today (Sunday) saw them holding joint first place with the Netherlands and France at the halfway stage, but a deterioration in  performance saw Ireland slip to fifth place at the final tally. Clear rounds from Marion Hughes with 'Heritage Transmission' and Capt. David O'Brien on 'Mo Chroi' and single errors by Denis Coakley with 'Johnny de la Haye' and Cameron Hanley on 'SIEC Concept' left Ireland on a total of four penalties after the first round. But two fences down by Hughes on her second outing and 12 faults from Hanley left little leeway for O'Brien and Coakley's four faults apiece, with the team finishing on an aggregate of 20 penalties. Britain won the Nations' Cup on nine faults, with the Netherlands second on 12 faults.

18/05/08 NIALL Talbot, who rode Ireland's only double-clear round in Friday's Danish Nations' Cup, brought out Isabel Balitzer's 14 year-old chestnut mare 'Tequi d'I CH' again this afternoon (Sunday) to claim victory and a 10,000 euro paycheck in the Copenhagen Grand Prix. The 37 year-old Swiss-based rider rode two more faultless rounds in today's three-star competition and was just under half a second faster than British runner-up Carl Curtis in the final round. Kildare-born Talbot also won this morning's two-phase competition at the Danish venue with 'Onisha'. Tipperary's Shane Breen took sixth place in today's Grand Prix with 'Little Ear' with a double clear, while Waterford-born Francis Connors completed the Irish top ten trio with a ninth place on 'Merlin's Magic'.

18/05/08 BALLIVOR-born Gerard Clarke won his first ever senior Grand Prix today (Sunday) at the age of 17, and propelled himself to joint third place in the National Grand Prix League standings for 2008. Riding his own 'Kellswater Crimson' the 17 year-old Young Rider was one of just five through to the jump-off at Cavan Equestrian Centre, and held off the other four contenders to take the winner's laurels by just one-and-half seconds. Afterwards Gerard said: ''You don't know how delighted I am. This is only the horse's fourth competition at 1m40. He's an eight year-old by Cruising and was bought at Cavan Sales two years ago. And this is my own first Grand Prix win. This has been a terrific competition for us both.'' With today's points, Gerard's win gives him a joint third place in the Grand Prix League alongside Harry Marshall and Gary Quinn.

18/05/08 ONLY two combinations were able to achieve clear first rounds at today's (Sunday) Grand Prix in La Courneuve, France, and Ireland's Ivan Dalton found that being the fastest four-faulter was good enough to achieve fourth place overall. The competition at the three-star show was won by France's Penelope Leprovost, who jumped off against the clock with fellow French rider Eric Navet. In third place was Spain's Christophe Francois, who recorded one time fault in the first round. Kilkenny-born Dalton, who celebrates his 22nd birthday at the end of this month, had one fence down with the Belgian-bred 'Watch Me', but a time of 84.92 was well ahead of the rest of the 33-strong field, and earned him fourth place and a prize purse of 3,000 euro.

18/05/08 JESSICA Kurten took a fifth place in the Antwerp Grand Prix today (Sunday) when finishing on a first round score of four faults with Lady Moira Forbes's 14 year-old bay stallion 'Galopin du Biolay'. Only two riders made it through to the jump-off from a starting field of 50, and Belgian competitors dominated the top three places, with Dominique Hendrickx taking the 12,500 euro top prize on 'An Sidec' in a two-way battle with challenger Pieter Devos and 'Tekila D'. Third place went to fellow-countryman Dirk Demeersman on on four first-round faults. Thirty-eight year-old Kurten was third-fastest of the first round four-faulters, behind fourth-placed Brazilian Olympian Rodrigo Pessoa and the chestnut mare 'Palouchin de Ligny'.

18/05/08 IRELAND'S Sacha Pemble took the honours at the finish of the one-day event at Chepstow in England today (Sunday) with a first place on Mrs. K. Sephton Lea's 'Just Maisie II'. The 31 year-old rider had a dressage score of 53.3 but incurred no cross-country or jumping faults and beat Britain's Graham Law into second place by a margin of five points. Pemble took a second place for Ireland with 'Hyanie d'Aubrie' in the main CCI three-star competition at Barroca d'Alva in Portugal in March.

The first Nations Cup competition in the Samsung Superleague Series 2008 took place at La Baule, France, last Friday. After two rounds of jumping, Ireland finished joint second in the first of these elite Nations Cup classes. Two Irish Sport Horses featured on the team, Cian O'Connor (Irl) with Irish Independent Echo Beach (ISH) and Captain Shane Carey (Irl) with River Foyle (ISH). Edward Doyle (Irl) with Sequoyah Farms Utopia and Denis Lynch (Irl) with Lantinus 3 made up the Irish team. At the same competition, 16 year old campaigner Killossery (ISH) and Captain Shane Carey (Irl) scored an amazing hat trick of victories, with Killossery (ISH) going on the receive the title of leading horse of the show. On the eventing circuit, Chatsworth International Horse Trials took place. Irish Sport Horses dominated the results in the Novice classes. In the CIC*** W, Parkmore Ed (ISH) and William Fox-Pitt (Gbr) finished in third place, with Louise Lyons (Irl) and Watership Down (ISH) and Joesph Murphy (Irl) and Master Boy (ISH) the best of the Irish in tenth and eighteenth place respectively. Both sections of the CIC*** were won by Irish Sport Horses, with Golden Hue (ISH) and Oliver Townend (Gbr) taking victory in Section H. In the CIC*** Section J, Ben Along Time (ISH) and Clayton Fredericks (Aus) took top honours.