Breen wins Hickstead Derby, Allen takes Netherlands Grand Prix

IN a notable double for Ireland, Sunday saw two major international wins when 19 year-old Bertram Allen and Molly Malone V won the Geesteren Grand Prix in the Netherlands, and Trevor Breen claimed the famous Hickstead Derby for the second year in a row.

Tipperary native Breen, who last year won the Derby on Adventure de Kannan, today took an early clear round with Patricia Brown’s Irish Sport Horse Loughnatousa WB and then had to watch 30 other competitors attempt to come home with a matching zero score. In an unusual twist, Breen also competed Adventure de Kannan in the Derby, effectively jumping against himself, but Karen Swann’s gelding had two rails down to finish further down the field.

With no other clear rounds recorded in the competition, Breen took home Hickstead’s Boomerang Derby Trophy and the 46,000 euro winner’s prize, with Cork’s Billy Twomey coming closest to his fellow countryman with just four faults on Diaghilev, finishing in equal second place.

Afterwards Breen said: “It’s amazing to win this famous competition two years in a row. I was very nervous at the end, as the last few horses came out, and my fingernails were bitten right down. Loughnatousa WB was magnificent, and he’ll have a couple of weeks off now.”

At Geesteren, Wexford teenager Bertram Allen jumped what looked like an almost effortless two rounds in the Netherlands Grand Prix with Ballywalter Farms’s mare Molly Malone V, speeding home in the 13 horse jump-off in a blistering 42.79 seconds. Austria’s Julia Kayser came closest to Allen with the stallion Sterrehof’s Cayetano Z, but was over four seconds off the pace of the world’s number five-ranked rider.

Allen collected a Mercedes CLA car as his prize for the Grand Prix victory.

Bertram Allen (left) and Trevor Breen