IT WAS three-in-a-row for Ireland at the Failte Ireland Dublin Horse Show today (Saturday) with Shane Breen and Billy Twomey taking outright victory in the first two classes and Cian O'Connor sharing first place in the Puissance.

Breen opened the score with the Accumulator competition, placing his Irish-bred gelding 'Dorada' in first, with the Army's Capt. David O'Brien close behind with another Irish-bred, the Minister for Defence's 'Kiltoom', and Nations' Cup clear-rounder Denis Lynch third with Thomas Straumann's 'Upsilon d'Ocquier'.

Billy Twomey racked up a second Irish victory shortly afterwards in the big jump-off class with Sue Davies's Nations' Cup horse 'Tinka's Serenade' seeing off Spanish challenger Sergio Alvarez Moya by just under a second. Nicola FitzGibbon rode her bay gelding 'Puissance' into third, with Niall Talbot recording Ireland's third double clear in the competition with a fourth place.

In the last competition of the day, it was Meath's Cian O'Connor and Yves Chauvin's French-bred gelding 'Noctambule Courcelle' who carried the Irish flag through to the podium when finishing joint first in the Puissance alongside Venezuela's Pablo Barrios. The two riders were the last left standing after the giant wall gradually defeated the rest of the 14 starters, but in the final jump-off with the wall standing at a forbidding 2m15, neither rider was able to jump clear and so shared the 19,700 euro first prize.

Tomorrow (Sunday) sees the Longines Grand Prix dominate proceedings at the RDS show grounds, with 200,000 euro in prize money on offer.
 

Billy Twomey and Cian O'Connor