It was a quieter week on the individual front, with many of the top international horses tapering down now in preparation for the World Equestrian Games, but Irish athletes grabbed three Grands Prix victories in North America over the weekend.
Philip McGuane maintained his outstanding consistency of the past few months by securing the honours in the three-star Core Specialty Insurance Grand Prix with Evergate Stables’ Crislin Van Den Bosrand Z in the New York State town of Saugerties on Saturday night Irish time.
At around about the same time, Daniel Coyle was adding to his tally with Ariel Grange’s Urville Z in the two-star Kubota & Stewarts Equipment Grand Prix in Caledon, Ontario.
Simon McCarthy and Liston Johnson’s Igor GPH rounded that little golden period off with their first international Grand Prix victory as a pair in the Mondelo Grand Prix at Ocala’s two-star show in Florida.
It was the fifth week of the HITS Hudson Valley series in Saugerties and McGuane maintained his good run by opening with a fourth in the first international class at the three-star show on Wednesday.
The Corofin jockey steered Donvier (Evergate Stables) to a double clear in a very tight contest at the Douglas Elliman GP Stadium, with Dubliner Nicky Galligan only seven-hundredths of a second slower on Irish Sport Horse Lougherne Kingfisher (Blue Trim), bred in Hillsborough by Jane Allen-Collins but two places back, such were the tight margins.
On Thursday morning, Jordan Coyle and the excellent For Gold (Falkirk Farm) made the podium in the Welcome Stake, with a jump-off time of 39.1 slotting them comfortably into third.
It was McGuane that had the final say, however, taking out the Grand Prix with a brilliant double clear on Crislin Van Den Bosrand Z (below).
An impressive roster of 34 horse-and-rider combinations representing nine different nations took part and the draw was helpful to McGuane, as the second-last participant.
American Mimi Gochman had only just posted a new target of 36.49 with Inclen BH but connections hadn’t long to bask in that glory, however, as McGuane and his horse found another three-quarters of a second, stopping the clock in 35.75.
“There were more jump-off qualifiers than I thought there would be,” said McGuane. “I got a good draw going at the end of the jump-off, so I just tried to keep up a good rhythm, keep my turns neat, and just trust her at the jump. She has a big stride, so I can just get her to the jumps and do less strides than most people.
“We purchased Crislin from Brian Moggre as a seven-year-old and Nayel Nassar and I have both campaigned her over the last year. She’s been a great horse for both of us. She’s very intelligent, careful, and she knows where the jumps are. She’s a great addition to our string.”
Daniel Coyle was competing at the two-star Kubota International Show in Caledon and the Ardmore athlete departed the Ontario town with the week’s primary prize, the Kubota & Stewarts Equipment Grand Prix with Urville Z (Ariel Grange).
The pair have been regular gold medallists since joining forces earlier this year and having gone very quickly but had just one jumping error earlier in the week, confidence had to be high about adding to that tally.
Only four of the 20 combinations survived the opening examination and it was very tight between Coyle and Vaclav Stanek (CZE), who was riding Langley. When the smoke cleared, it was the Derry pilot and his 13-year-old mare that prevailed with a jump-off clear in 36.13 seconds, compared to 36.41 for the runners-up.
Meanwhile, the test for McCarthy and Igor GPH looked a significant one, particularly with only five of the 44 pairings surviving for the definitive round. That the new combination were among the foot-perfect tandems was promising, and with the opening two contestants failing to add a second clear, the Cork athlete made sure to look after the bottom line, a policity that paid dividends with a clear in 39.74 that cemented victory.
“This has happened to me before, where I’ve gone third or fourth and the first couple of people have had rails, and I’ve gone in with absolutely no plan and completely messed it up,” said a laughing McCarthy after his well deserved lap of honour (below).
“So I used this as a good learning exercise today, and I just stuck with my plan.
“We haven’t done so many jump-offs, but I had the numbers that I wanted to do everywhere, and it all came up easily for me. He jumped even better in the second round than he did in the first round.
“It’s nice to know he likes to fight in the jump-offs as much as I do.
“I have two great horses right now, Igor and [Narcotique v/h Dingenshof]. I’m incredibly grateful to Brookside Pine Farms and Berry Porter for acquiring the horse, and to Liston and Victoria Johnson for buying the horse for me to compete. I know Liston’s going to want to take it off me sooner rather than later if he keeps winning these classes, but it’s an incredible opportunity to have a horse like this, and I’m just so grateful that they believe in me and they’re really standing behind me.”
The week’s five-star action was the CSIO affair at Hickstead, at which the Agria Nations Cup was the fulcrum and the Irish team performed excellently to be second behind their British hosts.
At individual level, Peter Moloney was the best of the Irish contestants. The Colligan native guided his 13-year-old gelding Neilson to fourth in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Saturday.
Coming into this competition on the back of a three-star Big Tour victory at Chard the previous week, the pair registered another fantastic double clear up in class, their tiebreak time of 37.56 only 01.14 seconds shy of third.
Longford man, Derek McCoppin and Capital Levubu (Bronwyn Meredith Dos Santos) also made the eight-strong jump-off but two fences down scuppered their chances of a higher finish.
Cormac Hanley and Santiago Vh Netehof (Heathman Farm) have been hoovering up the ribbons at the two-star Summer Series in Ocala and the duo just missed out another triumph on Wednesday when finishing runner-up in a 1.45m two-star speed class to Luis Fernando Larrazabal (VEN) and Baroness.
The Mayo native and his eight-year-old gelding stopped the timers in 62.44, with the victors registering 61.09.
At the two-star show in Zuidwolde, Ballinascarthy rider, Abbie Sweetnam went very close to bagging gold in the 1.45m Grand Prix Qualifier on Friday evening with Kirtan (Lill Sporthorses), holding the top berth for most of the 10-combo jump-off despite being the pathfinders. Their time of 36.53 survived until Ansgar Holtgers Jr (USA) and Kantibes blitzed around the Jantje Broek-Dekker Arena in 35.57.
And the duo maintained their form in the concluding Grand Prix on Sunday, posting another double clear for fourth, just edged out of a podium finish by three-hundredths of a second.
BREEDING
LOUGHERNE KINGFISHER (ISH) – 2016 gr mare by Colestus (WESTF) out of Lougherne Springs (ISH) by Limmerick (HOLST). Breeder: Jane Allen-Collins, Hillsborough, Co Down: Owner: Blue Trim. Rider: Nicky Galligan (IRL)