Ottawa was the venue of the latest high-profile Irish success in the show jumping world, as Daniel Coyle emerged with a five-star win, while Darragh Kenny posted two runner-up finishes.
Wesley Clover Parks has been the site of plenty of glory for the Green Jackets over the years and Coyle added to it with victory in the opening international feature on Thursday night.
The newly-minted World No 9 headed a field of 26 with a fresh, fit and firing Farrel, owned by the Ardmore native’s primary patron, Ariel Grange.
Having successfully jumped the first phase of the course set by Brazilian designer Marina Azevedo, the deadly duo set a blistering time of 29.52 seconds while leaving all rails intact to see off local hero Erynn Ballard with Her Game Ball BG by nine-tenths of a second.
Further evidence of the calibre of the competition was the presence of McLain Ward (USA) in third, riding Snapchat van de Broekkant Z.
Farrel has been one of the stories of the show jumping season, having seemed assured of stardom six years ago after being produced at Lothlorien Farm following his purchase by Grange’s late mother, Susan.
Covid and then a cyst led to more than two years on the sidelines, and unofficial retirement at least. The gleding made a remarkable recovery and has become a winning machine since returning to the fold at the age of 15.
“He’s had a very peculiar career,” said Coyle of the Dutch Warmblood. “He was my top horse as a nine-year-old and then Covid hit, and he had some time off. He grew a cyst in his stifle and they said he’d never jump again, but Ariel came in with some magic and said we’ll give him another chance.
“He owes none of us anything but if you see him going into the arena, he’s so fired up. He’s been my top horse before and now he’s 15 years old and he’s still one of our top horses. It’s a really special story.”
The Derry pilot gave an insight into the challenges of travelling from country to country on a weekly basis but in particular, when crossing the Atlantic, as he did following last week’s 150th Dublin Horse Show at the RDS.
“It’s very difficult,” he said. “I don’t think there’s one person who could say, ‘Oh, it’s no problem.’ It’s very difficult to go from different time zones and to riding different horses in different parts of the world. But that’s how you stay at the top of the game. You have to do it if you want to stay at the top. Is it tiring? Is it frustrating? At times, of course it is. But like any other athlete, you have to get on with it.
“I like to come back here to Ottawa, especially because Ariel really likes it here. We do so much traveling around that it’s nice to come closer to home.”
On Friday, Kenny was close to making it two renditions of Amhrán na bhFiann on the trot but it was a Trojan effort by the Offaly rider and Colibelle Hero Z (below) to bag the silver medal in the five-star Grand Prix Qualifier nonetheless.
The pair took the lead in the dozen-strong jump-off by stopping the clock in 37.52 seconds but that mark didn’t last long.
Allessandra Volpi (USA) was next into the ring on Qannando B&V and they left all the rails in place while stopping the timers in 36.82 seconds to move to the top of the leaderboard, where they remained. It was a first five-star triumph for horse and rider as a tandem.
Kenny settled for an excellent second with Colibelle Hero Z, a ten-year-old Zangersheide mare owned by Elena Haas.
Conor Swail just missed out on a top three slot, by three-hundredths of a second, steering Caturano to a double clear in a time of 38.4.
There was another runner-up finish for Kenny at Wesley Parks on Saturday night, with Diaroubet, a horse he has only been riding in competition for three months.
The five-star Winning Round class was won by Canadian, Nikki Walker, who is a native of Ontario and so had huge support in the stands.
Kenny and Diaroubet actually only had the only double clear round in the top five but of course with Winning Round rules apply, the top ten progress to the jump-off where all the combinations kick off with a clean slate.
Second time around in the 1.50m class, Walker and Kenny were the only athletes to register clear rounds but it was Walker and Atout des Trambles that were significantly quicker, 45.48 seconds to 47.57.
Volpi had the fastest time by a large margin, 41.53 seconds, but a rail down with Glamour placed her third in the final standings.