Another podium for Ireland with runner-up finish in Wellington

Daniel Coyle and Incredible jumped double clear in the Nations Cup at Wellington

The Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping team added another podium finish to their excellent recent run of form in the early hours of Sunday morning, finished second in the four-star Nations Cup at Wellington International in Florida.

Michael Blake’s team of Michael Duffy, Bertram Allen, Cian O’Connor and Daniel Coyle went into the event as reigning champions, having won last year, but relinquished their crown to the United States in front of their home supporters.

The Irish team, with some new Nations Cup combinations, were well in the hunt for top honours at the halfway mark, lying in second on just four faults after clears from Allen with Qonquest de Rigo and Coyle with Incredible. One pole down from O’Connor and Belvedere were the only faults on the Irish scoreboard.

In-form Coyle added another faultless round to go double clear, with Allen and O’Connor tagging on another four each.

It wasn’t the evening Michael Duffy and Cantano 32 would have hoped for as their scores in both rounds were discarded as Ireland finished in the runner-up position on 12, seven behind the USA, with Belgium in third on 17.

Afterwards, Horse Sport Ireland High Performance Show Jumping Director Blake was happy with his charges and the result, saying: “I’m very encouraged by the result and the performance, we had some new combinations there and they jumped well – they’re certainly horses for the future.

“Daniel and Incredible had been in great form coming into this and they were brilliant to jump double clear – they kept us in the hunt but ultimately the Americans never let us back into it and congratulations to them.

“Obviously we always want to win every Nations Cup we compete in but second place is never a result to take for granted and I’m very happy to be on another podium.

“We’ve got the League of Nations second leg in Ocala now to look forward to, having won there last year and obviously having won the first leg in Abu Dhabi, so we’ll switch our attention now to that and give it our best.”