HANLEY AND LIVING THE DREAM FINISH THIRD IN MONACO GRAND PRIX

AN excruciating time fault on his second round put Mayo’s Cameron Hanley and the gelding Living The Dream out of the jump-off in the sixth leg of the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix at Monaco tonight (Saturday), but it still gave him third place overall.

Picking up a substantial 45,000 euro for his two jumping rounds, Hanley said: “I was very pleased at Living The Dream’s outstanding performance tonight and I’m looking forward to competing him next at Aachen, his first time there.”

The nine year-old gelding, owned by Cameron Hanley Showjumpers, was brought on from a five year-old by the Irish rider and was one of the youngest horses competing at the prestigious Mediterranean venue tonight, where it was also one of only three horses not to leave a pole on the ground.

A punishing course saw only two combinations from a starting field of 46 go completely clear in the first two rounds, and in the resulting jump-off Qatar’s Bassem Hassan Mohammed and the 12 year-old mare Victoria beat Sweden’s Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and the 15 year-old stallion Casall ASK by just under a second. The winner collected 100,000 euro, while the runner-up took home 60,000 euro.

Hanley, who is 41, sustained a severe knee injury in 2011 that kept him out of the saddle for almost two years and required a total of 17 operations to restore him to fitness.

Cameron Hanley (right) on the podium at Monaco tonight