Duffy and Cantano Z sharp in Shanghai again

Up-and-coming partnership so close to huge win but record brilliant podium finish

Michael Duffy is one of the hottest riders on the Longines Global Champions Tour right now and Cantano 32 one of the in-form horses, as the pair followed up yesterday’s runner-up finish in the second of Shanghai’s Longines Global Champions League five-star classes with another brilliant podium finish, this time in third, in the €600,000 LGCT Grand Prix of Shanghai.

A winner of the LGCT Grand Prix at Miami Beach on Claptonn Mouche, Turloughmore native Duffy was effusive in his praise of the ten-year-old Cantano yesterday and his assertion that the progressive bay was a star of the future earned further credence by jumping one of only seven clear rounds in an arena with 16 jumping efforts.

Fourth into the ring in the jump-off, they actually bettered the time of winner Gilles Thomas (BEL) and Luna van het Dennehof, who posted 42.56 seconds as the first combination into the ring.

Duffy and Cantano 32 stopped the clock on 42.32 but heartbreakingly knocked a poll at the last to end hopes of a famous double, though the €90,000 for third place and an overall standing of fourth provided ample consolation.

“Hats off to Uliano (Vezzani), he built fantastic courses all week. There was plenty to jump but no major bogey fence. Just a lot of delicate jumping and top quality sport.

“When you compare it to Miami, I was happier with how I rode this round than Miami but it’s just sometimes how it falls. My horse is very experienced so I’m chuffed with him to be on the podium and be in the mix. Hats off to Gilles, he’s a top man, he’d a great round and he deserves it.”

Corkman Billy Twomey took the middle spot on the podium in four-star competition Canteleu this morning. Entering the Jouvence Arena for a second time on the exciting eight-year-old grey stallion Ace Of Hearts Z, after 11 pairs emerged from the opening round of the 1.45m class without a blemish, the Irish combination, going clear once more in a time of 35.44secs, just four-tenths of a second shy of French winning duo, Francois Xavier Boudot and Com de Rouet Z.