Condon and Duffy are Ireland’s Sunday Grand Prix stars

MAYO’S Alex Duffy and Waterford’s Anthony Condon were Ireland’s Grand Prix stars this weekend, with Duffy taking third place in the four-star competition at Amsterdam and Condon winning the two-star Mediterranean Equestrian Tour final in Oliva, Spain.

Condon, who turned 27 earlier this month and is based in England, celebrated his first ever international Grand Prix win today (Sunday) on Paul Stafford’s Value T, seeing off French challenger Julien Epaillard and Cristallo A LM by just a third of a second in a nine-horse jump off.

Condon also claimed a fourth place with Value T earlier in the week in the two-phase competition.

At Amsterdam in the Netherlands, meanwhile, 24 year-old Alex Duffy picked up 11,250 euro for his third place in the big four-star Grand Prix this evening, riding Cameron Hanley’s dark bay gelding Living the Dream. Duffy posted one of 13 zero scores in the first round and in the final battle for places came within a second of overtaking eventual winner, British veteran John Whitaker with the stallion Argento, who took home the first prize of 24,750 euro.

Irish riders had a successful week at Amsterdam, with 18 year-old Bertram Allen running up a clutch of top ten places on Wild Thing L, Molly Malone and Romanov, with Cameron Hanley also featuring regularly in the prize money with Antello Z, Newton Du Haut Bois and Caretina De Joter.

Victory eluded the Irish contingent taking part at the five-star World Cup event in Zurich today, with time faults spoiling otherwise clear first rounds from Jessica Kurten and Billy Twomey. Denied a place in the jump-off by a single penalty, Kurten had to settle for equal tenth on the stallion VDL Zapatero, with Twomey taking 12th place on the mare Tinka’s Serenade. The World Cup class was won by Switzerland’s Pius Schwizer and Toulago.

Shane Breen come close to winning at Zurich, riding Farao van’t Vennehof to second place in a 1m50 two-phase class, while Balloon also went clear in a 1m40 speed class to leave the Tipperary rider third.