Bertram Allen and Hector finish fifth in Hong Kong Grand Prix

WEXFORD’s Bertram Allen added to remarkable weekend for Irish Show Jumping, with a fifth place finish in the lucrative Longines Masters of Hong Kong Grand Prix in China this morning (Sunday).

Allen guided the nine-year-old grey stallion Hector Van d’Abdijhoeve to a hugely impressive double clear round, in one of the world’s richest competitions, with half a million Euro on offer.

The Noel Delahunty and Connaught Bloodstock-owned Hector Van d’Abdijhoeve was one of the youngest horses in the competition, having been produced in Ireland by Galway’s Tomas O’Brien, before World No. 9 Allen took up the reins last year.

Victory and the €150,000 winner’s prize went to German ace Marco Kutscher with Van Gogh. Twenty-year-old Allen won two major classes at the five-star Hong Kong event with the gelding Quiet Easy and returns to Europe with almost €100,000 in prize money.

Allen’s exploits in Hong Kong come on a weekend when Offaly’s Darragh Kenny won a three-star Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida with the Oakland Ventures & Sergio Alvarez Moya-owned Red Star D’Argent.

Waterford’s Anthony Condon also finished ninth in the Longines Grand Prix at Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates with the John Hales-owned stallion Aristio, having earlier jumped a double clear round in the Nations Cup.

Photo: Bertram Allen and the stallion Hector Van d’Abdijhoeve on their way to a fifth place finish in the Longines Masters of Hong Kong Grand Prix (Photo: Power Sport Images)